By Deborah Bloom
BEAUREGARD, Ala. (Reuters) – Alabama residents and rescue workers on Monday dug through the remnants of homes destroyed by a spate of tornadoes that killed at least 23 people, including at least three children, the deadliest U.S. twisters since 2013.
The tornadoes ripped through Lee County on Sunday with winds of up to 170 miles per hour (274 km per hour), at step four of the six-step Enhanced Fujita scale, which meteorologists use to measure tornado strength. Earlier estimates had put winds at 150 mph (241 kph).
Debris of housing seen following a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S. in this March 3, 2019 still image obtained from social media video. SCOTT FILLMER /via REUTERS
At least two tornadoes struck an area of eastern Alabama near the Georgia border in the space of a few hours on Sunday afternoon, with some of the worst damage in the tiny community of Beauregard, according to the National Weather Service.
Mobile homes were tossed on their sides and ripped open, their contents strewn on the ground, live television images showed. Pieces of homes hung from trees that were not flattened by the storm.
More than 50 people were reported injured, authorities said, making the tornadoes the deadliest since the one that tore through Moore, Oklahoma, in 2013, killing 24 people.
“It looks almost as if someone took a giant knife and just scraped the ground. There are slabs where homes formerly stood, debris everywhere, trees are snapped,” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told a morning news conference.
Three of the dead were children, ages 6, 9 and 10, County Coroner Bill Harris told an afternoon news conference. Family members identified two of the young victims.
A morning search of the area found no additional bodies, which officials had feared likely.
“We have not recovered any further victims from the areas that we have initially searched but I want to add a caveat to that, that we have not completed our searches,” Jones told the afternoon briefing.
All but six of the victims were identified and investigators think they know the identities of the others, Harris said.
‘THAT’S HALF MY HOME’
Jenifer Vernon, a 40-year-old grocery store attendant, surveyed the wreckage of her flattened home, spread in piles on either side of her Beauregard street.
“That’s half my home,” said Vernon, pointing to the debris. “That’s the other half.” She was in the nearby town of Opelika with her husband and 14-year-old daughter when the tornadoes hit.
Looking over splintered pieces of wood and the remains of kitchen appliances, Vernon said she had lost another home to fire last year, adding, “We’ll bounce back from this.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Monday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be helping.
“FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes,” Trump said.
The death toll was more than double the 10 people killed by tornadoes in the United States for all of 2018, according to government data.
Julie Morrison, a 61-year-old produce manager who has lived in Beauregard for 19 years, said she survived the storm by hiding in a bathtub with her husband.
On Monday, all that remained of her home was its concrete foundation, piled under heaps of wood and broken furniture, with the tattered remainders of a trailer wrapped around a tree.
“It’s just devastating to see this,” Morrison said. “I just thank God that me and my husband survived.”
(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax and Gabriella Borter in New York and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Scott Malone, Jeffrey Benkoe and Cynthia Osterman)
