Beauregard, Ala. — An apparent tornado roared into southeast Alabama and killed at least 14 people and injured several others Sunday, part of a severe storm…
Beauregard, Ala. — An apparent tornado roared into southeast Alabama and killed at least 14 people and injured several others Sunday, part of a severe storm system that destroyed homes, snapped trees and unleashed other tornadoes around the Southeast.
“I can confirm 14 fatalities,” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told The Associated Press on the scene in Beauregard, the area of apparently greatest destruction. He told reporters that children were among the dead and that some people are still believed missing and that a search and rescue operation was ongoing in that community about 60 miles (95 kilometers) east of Montgomery, Alabama’s capital city.
“Unfortunately we believe that number is going to go up,” Jones said of the fatalities. He said the apparent twister traveled straight down a key local artery in Beauregard and that the path of damage and destruction appeared at least a half mile wide. He said single-family homes and mobile homes were destroyed. He had told reporters earlier that several people were taken to hospitals, some with “very serious injuries.”
Dozens of emergency responders rushed to join search and rescue efforts in hard-hit Lee County after what forecasters said they think was a large tornado touched down Sunday afternoon, unleashed by a powerful storm system that also slashed its way across parts of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.
Radar and video evidence showed what looked like a large tornado crossing the area near Beauregard shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday, said meteorologist Meredith Wyatt with the Birmingham, Alabama, office of the National Weather Service.
“It appears it stayed on the ground for at least a mile and maybe longer,” Jones told AP.
After nightfall Sunday, the rain had stopped and pieces of metal debris and tree branches littered roadways in Beauregard.
