To the great people of Alabama and surrounding areas: Please be careful and safe. Tornadoes and storms were truly violent and more could be coming. To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!
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Multi strong tornados hit Lee County of Alabama on Sunday evening March 3rd, razed all the houses, killed at least 23 people dead, 42,000 homes lost electricity
Sunday, March 03, 2019
VietPress USA (Mar. 3rd, 2019): The Weather channel informed that multi tornadoes outbreak hit the South on Sunday, March 3rd, 2019, leaving damage in several states. At least 22 people were killed as multiple tornadoes hit Lee County, Alabama.
Reports of damage stretched across both states Sunday evening. More than 42,000 homes and businesses lost electricity in Georgia and Alabama.
Officials said at least 22 people were killed in Alabama as a vicious tornado outbreak ripped across the South on Sunday. The violent storms left debris strewn across southern Alabama and Georgia, the Florida Panhandle and into parts of South Carolina.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office told local media that no fewer than 22 people were killed when at least two tornadoes hit the southern Alabama county. The sheriff later said some of the victims were children; the National Weather Service said the first twister was at least EF3 in strength and was a half-mile wide or more.
Sunday was the deadliest day for tornadoes in the United States in nearly five years.
"We’ve still got people being pulled out of rubble," Lee County Coroner Bill Harris told AL.com. "We’re going to be here all night."
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said she would extend the current state of emergency to provide state resources for areas damaged by the storms.
"Our hearts go out to those who lost their lives in the storms that hit Lee County today," Ivey said in a tweet. "Praying for their families & everyone whose homes or businesses were affected."
About 3:15 p.m. EST, the NWS issued a tornado emergency after a large and destructive tornado was confirmed near Smiths Station, in Lee County, Alabama.
Calling it a "life-threatening situation," the NWS warned residents of Smiths Station, Bleecker, Monterey Heights and Bartletts Ferry Dam to take cover immediately as part of the tornado emergency declaration.
The same warning was given in Georgia for northern Muscogee County and southern Harris County. Smiths Station Mayor Bubba Copeland told The Weather Channel that at least 12 houses were flattened.
"We have a lot of mobile homes turned upside down," Copeland said.
He said Lee County schools are canceled Monday because "several huge holes are on top of the (elementary) school."I'm begging people to stay home ... and stay off the roads," Copeland said, so search and rescue efforts can continue.
The Lee County storm warnings were two of several tornado warnings issued for Alabama and Georgia on Sunday afternoon.
Reports said multiple homes were damaged in Dupree, Alabama, south of Dothan. Other reports said the airport and a fire station were damaged in Eufaula, Alabama.
Read more info from Reuters on Yahoo News at:
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CORRECTED-UPDATE 7-At least 23 dead in Alabama tornado, toll expected to rise -sheriff
(Adds number of customers without power, apparent tornadoes in Georgia)
By Sharon Bernstein
March 3 (Reuters) - At least 14 people, some of them children, died after a tornado swept through Lee County, Alabama, on Sunday, destroying numerous homes and leaving a death toll that could rise as rescuers sift through the rubble, Sheriff Jay Jones said.
Emergency workers were expected to toil through the night, pulling bodies and the injured out of the wreckage of destroyed homes and businesses.
"The challenge is the sheer volume of the debris where all the homes were located," Jones said in an interview with CNN. "It's the most I've seen that I can recall."
Storms, including at least one apparent tornado, also uprooted trees and destroyed homes in neighboring Georgia, initially knocking power out to 21,000 customers, said Georgia Power spokeswoman Meredith Stone. That number was reduced by more than half later on Sunday evening, she said.
In Alabama, Lee County Coroner Bill Harris said the death toll could rise.
"We've still got people being pulled out of rubble," he told the Birmingham News newspaper early on Sunday evening. "We're going to be here all night."
The East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika said in a statement that it was treating more than 40 patients as a result of the tornado and expected to receive more. Some patients had been sent to other hospitals, it added.
Severe weather unleashed one of numerous possible tornadoes that threatened the Southern United States on Sunday afternoon. Tornado warnings and watches were in effect for parts of Georgia and Alabama through Sunday evening.
Video footage from the small community of Beauregard in Lee County showed homes reduced to piles of wreckage, felled trees, and debris from blasted buildings scattered across roads.
Photos on social media from a highway near Smiths Station, about 20 miles (32 km) east of Beauregard, showed a large bar called the Buck Wild Saloon with its roof torn off and missing most of a wall after the storm swept through.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey warned residents on Twitter that more severe weather might be on the way. She said the state was working to help families who had been affected.
"Our hearts go out to those who lost their lives in the storms that hit Lee County today," Ivey wrote on Twitter. "Praying for their families & everyone whose homes or businesses were affected."
She said she was extending a state of emergency for Alabama that was issued on Feb. 23 to deal with flooding.
TEMPERATURES FALLING
Lee County Schools announced on Twitter that campuses in the county would be closed on Monday.
The National Weather Service office in Birmingham, Alabama, said it was sending three survey teams out on Monday to assess damage in Autauga, Macon, Lee and Barbour counties.
"Please stay out of damaged areas so first responders can do their job," the NWS office said on Twitter.
The storm initially left 17,000 customers without power in Alabama, but crews were able to reduce that number to 6,000 by about 9 p.m. EST on Sunday, said Michael Sznajderman, spokesman for the utility Alabama Power.
As thousands faced a night without power, temperatures looked set to fall to near freezing following the storm.
"Colder air will sweep into the Southeast behind the severe weather with temperatures dropping into the 30s (1 C) southward to central Georgia and across most of Alabama by Monday morning," AccuWeather meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said. "Those without power who rely on electric heat need to find ways to say warm." (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Peter Cooney)
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