Ala. store flattened as storms race across Southeast
MOBILE, Ala. — A possible tornado flattened a downtown store before dawn and ripped the front off a metal building across Mobile Bay on Friday, and forecasters said more storms could hit an area stretching from south Alabama to coastal Virginia.
Violent winds ripped open a Family Dollar store in a heavily populated neighborhood in Mobile and damaged an adjacent grocery store, Greer’s Cashsaver, before dawn, around the time tornado warnings covered the area, news outlets reported.
The grocery wasn’t open when the storm hit and workers managed to get the damage cleaned up and open just a few hours later than normal, said manager Marcus Canfield.
“Just a few ceiling tiles and a few front windows were knocked out,” he said. “It’s not too bad. It could have been a lot worse.”
Another building was badly damaged to the east across the bay in Daphne, where trees were splintered. No serious injuries were reported in Alabama, and the Storm Prediction Center said a tornado may have caused the damage in Mobile.
Mobile was near the southwestern end of a front stretching to the Virginia coast where forecasters said severe thunderstorms were possible. Some 24 million people live in the region, which includes Atlanta; Raleigh and Charlotte in North Carolina; and Norfolk, Va.
Earlier storms spawned several tornadoes that ripped through Texas and Oklahoma, causing damage to a school, a marijuana farm and other structures.
In West Virginia, the mayor of Huntington issued an emergency declaration Friday after the second large-scale flooding event in nine months.
No deaths or serious injuries were immediately reported after several inches of rain flooded streets in and around the Ohio River community. Mayor Steve Williams said there was severe damage to public and private property, along with a disruption of utility services.
Rapidly moving floodwaters several feet deep covered cars along one neighborhood. Schools were dismissed early Friday afternoon in Cabell and Wayne counties. First responders helped guide families out of their homes in some areas.
Last August, more than 4 inches of rain caused severe flooding in Huntington, swamping cars parked on downtown streets.
West Virginia’s Gov. Jim Justice has issued a state of preparedness for all 55 counties due to the threat of flooding this weekend.
The storms Wednesday and Thursday were the latest in several rounds of severe weather in the central United States. Last week, a tornado damaged more than 1,000 buildings in the Wichita suburb of Andover, Kan. Three University of Oklahoma meteorology students died in a car crash while returning from storm chasing.
After the threat to the Southeast passes, more storms will continue over the weekend in the central Plains and Midwest, the weather service said.