At least seven people were killed Thursday when multiple tornadoes ripped through the central United States, emergency services said.
Six of the fatalities lived in Autagthe deputy director of emergency services in the state of Alabama, Gary Weaver, told news agency France-Presse.
Another person died in the neighboring state of Georgia, where strong winds downed power polesleaving tens of thousands of people without electricity in their homes.
More than 100,000 people are without power in the states of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, Greg Robinson, director of public relations for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, told CNN.
Ernie Baggett, director of the Autagá County Emergency Agency, said there are about 40 houses damaged or destroyedby the passage of tornadoes with winds that exceeded 100 kilometers per hour.
At least 12 people were seriously injured and had to be hospitalized, Baggett told the Associated Press.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency in Auaga and five other counties.
Ivey confirmed on Twitter late Thursday afternoon that “parts of the state have been rocked by this dangerous weather phenomenon.”
We’ve already seen parts of the state shaken by this severe weather system, which is why I issued a state of emergency for six of our counties that were in the path of Mother Nature’s wrath: Autauga, Chambers, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore and Tallapoosa. #alpolitics (1/2) pic.twitter.com/DL3wIKRUdB
— Governor Kay Ivey (@GobernadoraKayIvey) January 12, 2023
The city of Selma, in Dallas County, also covered by the state of emergency, suffered “significant damage“, according to the office of the mayor, James Perkins, who asked neighbors to avoid leaving their homes or approaching downed power lines.
“Teams from the city will be sent shortly to carry out the cleanup,” added the municipality, on the Facebook social network.
The tornadoes then moved into neighboring Georgia, where the National Weather Service kept tornado warnings in effect until early Thursday morning.
Throughout the country there were reports of at least 33 tornadoes Thursday.
In Georgia, a passenger was killed when a tree fell on a vehicle in Jackson during the storm, Butts County Medical Examiner Lacey Prue said.
In the same county, southeast of Atlanta, the storm also caused a freight train to derail, authorities said.
Tornadoes, a difficult-to-predict weather phenomenon, are relatively common in the United States, especially in the central and southern parts of the country.
The southern United States was hit in late November by the passage of 36 tornadoes that killed two people in Alabama.
Source: Observadora
