People walk amid debris in Lee County, Alabama. after what appeared to be a tornado struck in the area. Photo / AP
People walk amid debris in Lee County, Alabama. after what appeared to be a tornado struck in the area. Photo / AP
A sheriff says the death toll is now at 22 from an apparent tornado that devastated an Alabama community.
Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told The Associated Press late Sunday evening that children are among the dead. He says it's possible the death toll could continue to rise, but authorities are pausing search efforts overnight because conditions are too dangerous in the dark due to massive amounts of debris.
A fallen cell tower lies across US Route 280 highway in Lee County. Photo / AP
Jones says search and rescue teams will resume their work at first light. He added that some single-family homes are wiped clean to a slab. He has said earlier there were injuries but had no specific account of those or their severity. Authorities have blocked off the area.
The storm was one of several possible tornadoes or confirmed twisters in an outbreak springing from a severe weather front that lashed the Southeast on Sunday.
President Donald Trump has tweeted to Alabama residents to be safe in the wake of deadly storms, including an apparent tornado that has claimed several lives in that Southern state.
Trump wrote in the tweet Sunday evening: "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."
His tweet concluded: "To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!"
Authorities in southwest Georgia are searching door to door in darkened neighborhoods after a possible tornado touched down in the rural city of Cairo.
Cairo City Manager Chris Addleton said office and commercial buildings in the downtown had windows blown out and metal roofs torn off by the storm Sunday evening. He said some residents reported being stuck inside homes that were damaged or had trees on them.
There were no immediate reports of serious injuries in the community, 50km north of the Florida capital of Tallahassee.
Electricity was out. Addleton said the full extent of the damage likely wouldn't be known until daylight.
Authorities warned that the death toll could rise further as search efforts continued in the small community of Beauregard and surrounding areas. Jones said the storm's path of destruction stretched for miles through his rural county, and in places was about a fourth of 400m wide. He didn't have an immediate account of how many were believed missing.
Damage from a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama. Photo / Courtney Harris
Several people in Lee County were taken to hospitals, "some of them with very serious injuries," Jones said.
Rita Smith, spokeswoman for the Lee County Emergency Management Agency, said about 150 first responders were assisting in the storm's aftermath.
Multiple homes were destroyed or damaged in Beauregard, about 95km east of Montgomery, Smith said.
"We've still got people being pulled out of rubble," Lee County Coroner Bill Harris told Al.com on Sunday evening. "We're going to be here all night."
The sheriff and coroner did not immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press.
No deaths had been reported Sunday evening from storm-damaged Alabama counties outside Lee County, said Gregory Robinson, spokesman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. But he said crews were still surveying damage in several counties in the southwestern part of the state.
Emergency responders work in the scene amid debris in Lee County, Alabama. Photo / AP
Radar and video evidence showed what looked like a large tornado crossing the area near Beauregard shortly after 2pm Sunday (US time), said meteorologist Meredith Wyatt with the Birmingham, Alabama, office of the National Weather Service.
Numerous tornado warnings were posted across parts of Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina on Sunday afternoon as the powerful storm system raced across the region.
Tornado Warning including Tallahassee FL, Quincy FL, Midway FL until 8:15 PM EST pic.twitter.com/RShtZgYSZT
In rural Talbotton, Georgia, about 130km south of Atlanta, a handful of people were injured by either powerful straight-line winds or a tornado that destroyed several mobile homes and damaged other buildings, said Leigh Ann Erenheim, director of the Talbot County Emergency Management Agency.
This metal wrapped around the tree is everywhere, in the distance is what used to be Capps Sausage. #tornado in Beauregard pic.twitter.com/xAnQwWqvKV
Televised broadcast news footage showed smashed buildings with rooftops blown away, cars overturned and debris everywhere. Trees all around had been snapped bare of branches.
This photo shows debris in Lee County after what appeared to be a tornado struck in the area. Severe storms destroyed mobile homes, snapped trees and left a trail of destruction. Photo / AP
"The last check I had was between six and eight injuries," Ereheim said in a phone interview. "From what I understand it was minor injuries, though one fellow did say his leg might be broken."
This was by far the hardest hit area on our road, Capps’ (Of the local famous Capps Sausage) house in the distance looks destroyed, cars are flipped, every tree in this swath is gone. #Tornado in Beauregard. @spannpic.twitter.com/UkgRiIwyVH
Henry Wilson of the Peach County Emergency Management Agency near Macon in central Georgia said a barn had been destroyed and trees and power poles had been snapped, leaving many in the area without power.
Authorities said a tornado was confirmed by radar in the Florida Panhandle late Sunday afternoon.
A portion of Interstate 10 on the Florida Panhandle was blocked in one direction for a time in Walton County in the aftermath, said Don Harrigan, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.
This was by far the hardest hit area on our road, Capps’ (Of the local famous Capps Sausage) house in the distance looks destroyed, cars are flipped, every tree in this swath is gone. #Tornado in Beauregard. @spannpic.twitter.com/UkgRiIwyVH
"There's a squall line moving through the area," Harrigan told AP. "And when you have a mature line of storms moving into an area where low level winds are very strong, you tend to have tornadoes developing. It's a favorable environment for tornados."
A funnel cloud in Byron, Georgia. Photo / AP
The threat of severe weather was expected to continue into Sunday evening. A tornado watch was in effect for much of eastern Georgia, including Athens, Augusta and Savannah. The tornado watch also covered a large area of South Carolina, including the cities of Charleston and Columbia.
