At least six people have been confirmed killed following a massive storm system that swept across the US South in central Alabama on Thursday.
According to reports, tornadoes also ripped roofs off homes and uprooted trees in historic Selma, killing one person in Georgia and knocking out power to tens of thousands of people.
According to Ernie Baggett, the county’s emergency management director, a tornado in Autauga County, Alabama, 66 kilometres northeast of Selma, cut a 32-kilometre path through two rural communities and resulted in at least six confirmed fatalities and an estimated 40 homes being destroyed.
At least 12 people sustained injuries severe enough to require medical attention and at least a few mobile homes were thrown into the air, according to Baggett, who spoke to The Associated Press.
He noted that workers had been working all night Thursday to clear through fallen trees in search of anyone who might require assistance.
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“It really did a good bit of damage. This is the worst that I’ve seen here in this county,” Baggett said.
According to Butts County Coroner Lacey Prue, a passenger in Georgia died after a tree fell on a car in Jackson during the storm. Officials reported that the storm looked to have forced a freight train off its tracks in the same county southeast of Atlanta.
According to officials in Griffin, south of Atlanta, who spoke with the press, several people were trapped inside an apartment complex after trees fell on it. Firefighters also freed a Griffin man after spending hours pinned under a tree that had fallen on his home.
As a result of authorities deciding that it was unsafe to operate buses, a high school was damaged, and kids were kept at four middle schools until their parents could pick them up.
The city of Griffin imposed a curfew from 10 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Friday.
Story was adapted from VOA.
