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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 5 March 2019

23 dead, dozens missing in tornado-blasted Alabama community

By KIM CHANDLER and JEFF is a real close-knit family,”
MARTIN Clardy said. “Everybody
Associated Press knows everybody around
BEAUREGARD, Ala. (AP) — here. Everybody is heart-
Rescue crews using dogs broken.”
and drones searched for Julie Morrison and her
victims amid splintered daughter-in-law picked
lumber and twisted metal through the ruins of Morri-
Monday after the deadli- son’s home in Beauregard,
est U.S. tornado in nearly six looking for keys and a wal-
years ripped through a rural let. They managed to sal-
Alabama community. At vage her husband’s motor-
least 23 people were killed, cycle boots and a Bible.
some of them children. Morrison said she and her
Dozens were missing in Lee husband took shelter in the
County nearly a day after bathtub as the twister lifted
the twister struck, accord- their house off the ground
ing to the sheriff, who said and swept it into the woods.
that crews had combed “We knew we were fly-
the hardest-hit areas but ing because it picked the
that other places had yet Debris from a home litters a yard the day after a tornado blew it off its foundation, at right, in house up,” Morrison said,
to be searched. Beauregard, Ala., Monday, March 4, 2019. figuring that the shower’s
The winds Sunday after- Associated Press fiberglass enclosure helped
noon obliterated numer- hung on a fence at Beau- and scraped the ground,” and Florida. them survive. She said her
ous homes, leaving huge, regard High School. Sheriff Jay Jones said. Don Willis, who lives near son-in-law later dug them
jumbled piles of wood and “I’m still thanking God I’m County Emergency Man- the Lee County commu- out.
household belongings. among the living,” said agement Director Kathy nity of Smiths Station with Along one hard-hit coun-
Some homes were reduced John Jones, who has lived Carson said she was a his wife, four daughters and try road, giant pieces of
to concrete slabs. Debris most of his life in Beaure- “pretty sure” that torna- four dogs, said the twister metal from a farm building
was scattered across the gard, an unincorporated do sirens in Beauregard came within about a mile dangled from pine branch-
countryside, with shredded community of roughly sounded warnings but that of their home as the chil- es 20 feet (6 meters) in the
metal hanging from the 10,000 people about 60 authorities were busy with dren and pets took cover in air, making loud creak-
pine trees. miles east of Montgomery the search-and-rescue and the closet and bathroom. ing sounds as the wind
“I’m not going to be sur- near the Georgia state line. had not yet looked into the He said he had been blew. For an entire mile
prised if we don’t come up The National Weather Ser- question. through numerous torna- down the road, pines were
with some more deceased. vice said one and possibly Crews searching door-to- does over the years and snapped in half. A mobile
Hopefully we won’t,” Coro- two tornadoes struck the door used dogs as well as had never heard one as home crushed by two trees
ner Bill Harris said. He said area, with a powerful EF-4 drones that can detect loud. marked the end of the path
the dead included almost twister with winds estimat- heat from a body. “We’re “You could feel the ener- of destruction.
entire families and at least ed at 170 mph (274 kph) basically using everything gy that it was sucking into An early March tornado
three children, ages 6, 9 blamed for most of the de- we can get our hands on,” that system. It was the most outbreak in the Alabama-
and 10. struction. It carved a path the sheriff said. crazy sound,” Willis said. Mississippi area is not un-
On the day after the disas- nearly a mile (1.6 kilome- President Donald Trump “It sounded like a living, usual, tornado experts said.
ter, volunteers used chain ters) wide and 24 miles (39 tweeted that he told the breathing beast.” The weather service’s
saws to clear paths for kilometers) long, said me- Federal Emergency Man- Beauregard, named for a Storm Prediction Center in
emergency workers. Neigh- teorologist Chris Darden. agement Agency to give Confederate general, is in Norman, Oklahoma, post-
bors and friends helped Darden said the “monster Alabama “the A Plus treat- a corner of the same coun- ed forecasts for higher tor-
one another find some of tornado” was the deadliest ment.” ty that is home to Auburn nado activity in the region
their belongings in the ruins. twister to hit the U.S. since The twister was part of a University. The community on Thursday, three days be-
At the R&D Grocery, rattled May 2013, when an EF-5 powerful storm system that has a few small stores, two fore the disaster. University
residents asked each other killed 24 people in Moore, slashed its way across the schools and a volunteer fire of Georgia meteorology
if they were OK. And a big Oklahoma. Deep South, spawning nu- department dotting the professor Marshall Shep-
banner that read “#BE- “It looks like someone al- merous tornado warnings main highway that runs it. herd said government fore-
AUREGARDSTRONG” was most just took a giant knife in Georgia, South Carolina “Everybody in Beauregard casters “were all over it.”q