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A4 U.S. NEWS
Friday 13 January 2023
‘Dangerous’ Alabama tornado slams buildings, uproots trees

SELMA, Ala. (AP) — A gi- ered an emergency situa-
ant, swirling storm system tion.
billowing across the South The outer skin of a two-sto-
spurred a tornado on Thurs- ry building was shredded
day that shredded the by the storm, photos from
walls of homes, toppled The Selma Times-Journal
roofs and uprooted trees showed. Huge pieces of
in Selma, Alabama, a city insulation and metal were
etched in the history of the wrapped around the trunk
Civil Rights movement. of a tree, and fallen tree
The “large and extreme- branches obscured a sign
ly dangerous tornado” that proclaims “WELCOME
caused damage as it TO HISTORIC SELMA.”
moved through the historic The weather service had
city, the National Weather issued a tornado emergen-
Service said. cy for several counties just
There were no immediate north of the capital city of
reports of deaths, but the Montgomery as the same
weather service said there storm system moved east-
were confirmed reports of ward. “This is a life-threat-
tree and structural dam- ening situation. Take shelter
age in Selma and reports of immediately,” the Weather
damage in other counties. Service said of the reported
There is damage “all over tornado.
Selma,” former state Sen. There were multiple torna-
Hank Sanders said he has do warnings issued Thurs-
been told. Fallen trees are seen in the aftermath of severe weather, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023, in Selma, Ala. day in Alabama, Mississippi
Associated Press
“A tornado has definitely and Tennessee as the storm
damaged Selma. In fact, prayed. We followed it and 18,000 residents, is about 50 law officers was John Lewis, system moved through the
it hit our house, but not prayed,” she said. “It was miles (80 kilometers) west of whose skull was fractured. region. In Kentucky, the
head-on. It blew out win- a 100% God thing that it the Alabama capital city of He went on to a long and National Weather Service
dows in the bedroom and turned right before it hit Montgomery. distinguished career as a in Louisville confirmed that
in the living room. It is rain- my house.” She took video Selma was a flashpoint of U.S. congressman. an EF-1 tornado struck Mer-
ing through the roof in the of the giant twister, which the Civil Rights movement. Selma Mayor James Per- cer County and said crews
kitchen,” Sanders said. would turn black as it swept Alabama state troopers kins told WSFA that least were surveying damage in
Malesha McVay drove par- away home after home. viciously attacked Black one person was believed a handful of other coun-
allel to the tornado with her “It would hit a house and people advocating for vot- trapped in a building on ties. There were reports of
family. She says it got less black smoke would swirl ing rights as they marched Broad Street and possibly downed trees, power out-
than a mile from her home up,” she said. “It was very across the Edmund Pettus one other person is missing. ages and other scattered
before suddenly turning. terrifying.” Bridge on March 7, 1965. There are multiple downed damage from storms that
“We stopped and we Selma, a city of about Among those beaten by powerlines, and it is consid- moved through the state.q

U.S. air travel returns to normal after

technology breakdown

federal agency whose indication that the outage it’s not something that is
technology failure incon- was caused by a cyberat- done overnight.”
venienced millions of trav- tack but that officials would United Airlines CEO Scott
elers. The Federal Aviation not rule that out either until Kirby has been critical of
Administration said a dam- they know more. the FAA on a variety of is-
aged database file ap- The FAA did not immedi- sues, including staffing of
peared to have caused ately respond to questions air traffic controllers. He
the outage in the safety- about the damaged data- says the agency makes
alert system. Transportation base. The massive disrup- “a heroic effort” and does
Secretary Pete Buttigieg tion was the latest black well most of the time but
promised a thorough ex- eye for the agency, which can be overwhelmed dur-
Flight status boards show delayed and cancelled flights at Harry
Reid International Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in Las amination to avoid another has traded blame with air- ing busy travel times.
Vegas. major failure. lines over who is inconve- Rep. Rick Larsen of Wash-
Associated Press “Our immediate focus is niencing passengers more. ington state, the top Dem-
technical — understand- Critics, including airline and ocrat on a House aviation
By DAVID KOENIG By early afternoon on the ing exactly how this hap- tourism leaders, say the subcommittee, said the
AP Airlines Writer East Coast, about 100 flights pened, why the redundan- agency has been under- outage raises questions
U.S. air travel returned had been canceled and cies and the backups that funded and needs to mod- “about the current state
mostly to normal Thursday, 1,700 delayed — much low- were build into the system ernize its technology. of the technology infra-
a day after a computer er figures than on Wednes- were not able to prevent “Investment is going to be structure at the FAA.” He
system that sends safety day, when more than 1,300 the level of disruption that required, no doubt,” Amer- told CNN that Congress
information to pilots broke flights were scrubbed and we saw,” Buttigieg told re- ican Airlines CEO Robert would consider whether
down and grounded traffic 11,000 delayed. porters. Isom told CNBC. “It’s going the agency needs more
from coast to coast. Attention turned to the Buttigieg said there was no to be billions of dollars, and money to modernize.q