UPDATED 12:37 P.M.
ATLANTA (Reuters) -At least nine people died in tornadoes that destroyed homes and knocked out power to tens of thousands in the U.S. Southeast, local officials said on Friday, and the death toll in hard-hit central Alabama was expected to rise.
The storms on Thursday stretched from Mississippi to Georgia. At least five tornadoes touched down in central Alabama, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jessica Laws. One of those twisters potentially tracked about 150 miles (241 km) from southwest Selma, Alabama, to the Georgia-Alabama state line, she said.
Rescue teams were searching for missing people in Alabama’s Autauga County, where seven deaths have been reported, emergency management director Ernie Baggett said on MSNBC. He credited schools for saving more lives by not releasing students early.
County coroner Buster Barber told Reuters the number of casualties would rise.
“We are finding more bodies as we speak,” he said in a phone interview. “We’ve got search teams out in the area.”
Storms damaged as many as 50 properties in Autauga County, according to the local sheriff’s office.
In Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp confirmed two people had died in Thursday’s storms. A 5-year-old child was killed after a tree fell on a car, leaving an adult passenger in critical condition as they were driving home, Butts County Coroner Lacey Prue said.
A state employee also was killed while responding to the storm, Kemp said.
Images from the severe storms showed widespread damage in Selma, a pivotal site of the U.S. civil rights movement. A tornado tore off rooftops and hurled debris. Multiple businesses and homes were destroyed, and trees were ripped from their roots.
Residents were visibly shaken by the experience, and some counted themselves lucky to be alive.
One woman began to cry as she described riding out the storm in her bathtub. She said the winds picked up her trailer, destroying everything inside.
Ray Hogg said he found shelter inside a country club.
“You could hear the roar, glass going everywhere,” he said. “You could hear the roof literally being torn off right over our heads.”
Officials confirmed four tornadoes touched down in Georgia, largely southeast of Atlanta but causing damage across the state, with winds peeling off roofs, knocking down houses and uprooting trees.
Just southeast of Atlanta, a freight train had three of its cars blown off the tracks, blocking traffic. No injuries from that incident were reported, officials said.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday declared a state of emergency for the six counties of Autauga, Chambers, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore and Tallapoosa.
Nearly 20,000 customers were without power in Alabama on Friday, according to PowerOutage.us. The storm also led to power outages in neighboring states of Mississippi and Georgia.
Tornado sirens in Monroe County in northeast Mississippi, where a twister made landfall, failed to activate as the storm moved through the area, local news reported.
(Reporting by Tyler Clifford in New York and Rich McKay in AtlantaEditing by Colleen Jenkins, Matthew Lewis and Josie Kao)
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(Reuters) -At least six people were killed in central Alabama on Thursday as thunderstorms and at least one tornado swept through the region, local officials said.
An Autauga County Sheriff’s spokeswoman confirmed to Reuters that six people had died in the storm, but she said she had no further details.
“I am sad to have learned that six Alabamians were lost to the storms that ravaged across our state. My prayers are with their loved ones and communities. We are far too familiar with devastating weather, but our people are resilient. We will get through it and be stronger for it,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said on Twitter.
Autauga County Coroner Buster Barber said that at least four people had been killed by flying debris hurled by the tornado. Barber said he had no further in formation on the deceased.
Ivey on Thursday declared a state of emergency for six Alabama counties hit hardest by the storm: Autauga, Chambers, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore and Tallapoosa.
The high winds and heavy rain damaged homes and left tens of thousands of customers without power in parts of Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama.
More than 250 flights were canceled or delayed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Alexandra Ulmer and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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