A string of deadly tornadoes roared through Alabama on Thursday, toppling trees, demolishing homes and knocking out power to thousands, part of a broad swath of violent weather sweeping across the Deep South. At least five fatalities and an unknown number of injuries were reported.
The confirmed deaths were in Calhoun County, in the eastern part of the state, where one of multiple twisters sprang from a super cell of storms that later moved into Georgia, said John De Block, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Birmingham.
Pat Lindsey, a resident of the county’s hard-hit town of Ohatchee, told The Associated Press that a neighbor of his was killed when a twister destroyed his mobile home. He was good as gold, Lindsey said.
Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade said the twister cut a diagonal path across the county, striking mostly rural areas something that likely kept the death toll from being higher.
Tonight, five people lost their lives and for those families, it…