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A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 1 december 2022
Tornadoes fueled by record highs wrecked homes around South

By KIM CHANDLER down, but they just don’t
and JEFF MARTIN stand a chance against
Associated Press a tornado,” Hale County
WETUMPKA, Ala. (AP) — Tor- Emergency Management
nadoes damaged numer- Director Russell Weeden
ous homes, destroyed a told WBRC.
fire station, briefly trapped Two other people were
people in a grocery store injured as the storm tore
and ripped the roof off an apart homes in Caldwell
apartment complex in Mis- Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff
sissippi, while two people Clay Bennett told KNOE-TV.
died as a tree crunched The weather service con-
their mobile home in Ala- firmed that tornadoes hit
bama, authorities said the ground in Mississippi.
Wednesday. Images of the wreckage
The National Weather in Caledonia showed a
Service had warned that grocery store damaged,
strong twisters capable of a fire station shredded
carving up communities and a house toppled, but
over long distances were Lowndes County Emergen-
possible as the storm front cy Management Agency
moved eastward from Director Cindy Lawrence
Texas. They were fueled by told WTVA-TV that every-
record high temperatures one escaped injury. Hail
and threatened a stretch stones crashed against the
of the United States where windows of City Hall in the
more than 25 million peo- People walk through an area of destroyed structures in Flatwood, Ala. on Wednesday, Nov. 30, small town of Tchula, Missis-
ple live. 2022. sippi, where sirens blared as
A total of 73 tornado warn- Associated Press the mayor and other resi-
ings and 120 severe thun- Others in the tight-knit com- can’t replace a person,” the roof were missing from dents took cover.
derstorm warnings were munity narrowly escaped Bankston said, her voice still an apartment complex, “It was hitting against the
issued from Tuesday after- with their lives: Caroline trembling. Isaiah Sankey, displacing 15 families in the window, and you could tell
noon to Wednesday morn- Bankston said she and Tim who represents Flatwood middle of the night, and that it was nice-sized balls
ing, said Matthew Elliott, a Wiseman were watching as vice chairman of the power lines and trees were of it,” Mayor Ann Polk said
meteorologist at the Storm the news and trying to fig- Montgomery County Com- “all over the road,” Eutaw after the storm passed.
Prediction Center in Nor- ure out where the twister mission, expressed grief for Police Chief Tommy John- High winds downed pow-
man, Oklahoma. was when she looked out the lives lost and vowed son told WBRC-TV. er lines, and flooding was
Significant tornado dam- the window and realized it that installing storm shelters A suspected tornado dam- a hazard as more than 5
age was evident in the was on top of them. They will be a priority. aged numerous homes inches (13 centimeters) of
Flatwood community north ran to a safer corner as the “When we do rebuild, we during the night in Hale rain fell within several hours
of Montgomery, Alabama, roof caved in, burying their will have storm shelters,” County, Alabama, where in some places. More than
where two people were sofa in debris. Sankey said. the emergency director 50,000 customers in Missis-
killed as a tree struck their “We just prayed, prayed, “We have got to prepare said more than a third of sippi and Alabama were
home, said Christina Thorn- prayed, ‘Please God for these unforeseen cir- the people live in highly vul- without electricity Wednes-
ton, director of the Mont- Please take care of us. cumstances.” nerable mobile homes. day morning, according
gomery County Emergen- Please,’ and he did. You In the west Alabama town “I have seen some really to poweroutage.us, which
cy Management Agency. can replace stuff, but you of Eutaw, large sections of nice mobile homes tied tracks utility outages.q

U.S. officials say 2 more places will test sewage for polio

By MIKE STOBBE officials say they have been receiving wastewater sam-
AP Medical Writer talking with other commu- pling data for the corona-
NEW YORK (AP) — Philadel- nities about also starting virus from all 50 states. This
phia and Oakland County, polio wastewater testing. year, commercial labora-
Michigan, are joining the They are focused on cities tories began testing waste-
small list of U.S. localities and counties with low polio water for mpox, previously
that are looking for signs of vaccination coverage and known as monkeypox.
polio infections in sewage, those in which travelers Next year, health officials
U.S. health officials said had visited the New York in Houston and Colora-
Wednesday. communities where polio do plan to begin testing
The Centers for Disease was found. sewage for several other
Control and Prevention Officials say identifying the health threats, including
said the communities will virus in sewage can help a germs with antibiotic resis-
test for polio in sewage for city or county accelerate tance, influenza, respirato-
at least four months. Com- and target vaccination ry syncytial virus, norovirus
munities in New York state campaigns. and other bugs. If the pilot
Ryan Dupont, Utah State University Professor of Civil &
Environmental Engineering, collects sewage samples from the began testing earlier this Health officials around the goes well, the wider testing
dorms at Utah State University Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, in year after a man was diag- world have used wastewa- will be rolled out to other
Logan, Utah, to test for COVID-19. nosed with paralytic polio ter to track COVID-19 out- parts of the country, CDC
Associated Press outside New York City.CDC breaks. The CDC currently is officials said.q