UNITED STATES: A massive storm system that swept across the southern United States on Thursday killed at least six people in central Alabama and spawned a tornado that destroyed the walls of a Selma home, ripped off roofs And the trees were uprooted.
Ernie Baggett, emergency management director for Autauga County, Alabama, confirmed to The Associated Press that there were six deaths in several homes in the Old Kingston neighborhood. According to Baggett, both traditional and movable homes were damaged.
According to Baggett, people appeared at the house in several different homes. He claimed that at least 12 people suffered injuries serious enough to require hospital transport. Baggett claimed that he was unaware of the seriousness of his wounds.
Autauga County, Alabama, is located 66 kilometers (41 mi) northeast of Selma. The storm, which cut across the county, damaged or destroyed 40 to 50 homes, according to officials. He claimed that on Thursday night, workers were focused on clearing fallen trees to search for possible casualties.
According to Baggett, what's happening right now is really more search and rescue. The downtown area of Selma, Alabama, known for its role in the civil rights movement, was littered with traffic jams, cars on their sides, and brick buildings.
A fire was burning, and clouds of heavy, black smoke rose over the city. It was not immediately clear whether a storm was responsible for the fire.
Buildings were destroyed by the storm a few blocks away from the city's famous Edmund Pettus Bridge, an enduring representation of the voting rights movement, and trees blocked roads.
No casualties have yet been reported, according to Selma Mayor James Perkins, but first responders are still assessing the damage. There have been no deaths, according to Perkins.
"Many power lines have fallen here. The roads are extremely dangerous. The mayor also said that a curfew will be implemented in the city."
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According to the National Weather Service, a "large and extremely dangerous tornado" caused damage as it tore through the historic downtown. According to the agency, structural and tree damage has been confirmed in Selma as well as damage has been reported in other countries.
As of Thursday evening, the National Weather Service had received 33 separate reports of tornadoes across the country, and several tornado warnings were still in effect in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
However, the reports were yet to be verified, and some of them may be labeled as wind damage after the assessment is completed in the next few days. Hank Sanders, a former Alabama state senator, claimed that he had been informed that damage had occurred "all over Selma".
Sanders reported, "Selma has undoubtedly been damaged by a tornado. In fact, it hit our house, but not directly. The living room and bedroom windows were blown out by it. It's raining off the roof in the kitchen." ,
About 18,000 people live in Selma, which is located approximately 50 miles (80 km) west of Montgomery, the state capital of Alabama. Selma was a major turning point in the civil rights movement.
On March 7, 1965, black supporters of voting rights were brutally attacked by Alabama state troopers as they marched over the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
John Lewis, whose skull was fractured, was one of those attacked by law enforcement. He then went on to have a long and successful career as a US Congressman.
Children were crying and screaming when Krishna Moore left her home after the tornado had passed. When they could not find the two of them on the roof of a damaged apartment, she and her mother encouraged the children to keep screaming.
The children, in her estimation, were between one and four years old. She said on Facebook messenger that they were both fine. Maleesha McVay and her family were traveling parallel to the tornado. He claimed that it made a sudden turn less than a mile from his house.
"We stayed and prayed. We did that and prayed," she remarked. The fact that it turned right before it fell on my house was definitely an act of God.
He recorded the huge tornado as it went black and later destroyed the house. He described how black smoke rose after hitting a house.
It was terrible. As the storm system moved east, the weather service declared a tornado emergency for several counties north of the state capital, Montgomery. "This is a situation where life is in danger. The weather service advises taking shelter immediately in the event of a tornado."
Several tornado warnings were issued for Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee on Thursday as the storm system passed through the area.
Alabama had more than 50,000 customers without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks outages across the country.
According to PowerOutage.us, just before sunset on Thursday, more than 100,000 Georgians were without power as the storm system cut through a tier of counties just south of Atlanta.
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Local news sources reported that the storm damaged a shopping area in Griffin, which is south of Atlanta. One or more cars were flipped in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart, and a Hobby Lobby store's roof was partially damaged.
West of downtown Atlanta, damage was also reported in Douglas and Cobb counties, with the Cobb County government publishing a damage report that featured a collapsed cinder block wall at a warehouse in the suburb of Austell.
An EF-1 tornado struck Mercer County in Kentucky, according to the National Weather Service in Louisville, and crews were assessing damage in a few other counties. Trees that had fallen, power outages, and other sporadic damage were all reported as a result of storms that passed through the state.