Alan Blinder and Matt Stevens

Houses lay shredded and entire neighborhoods flattened in the wake of Sunday’s storms in Lee County, Alabama, where the deaths occurred. Sheriff Jay Jones of Lee County said it was as if someone “took a giant knife and just scraped the ground.”

Jones said that several people were still unaccounted for and that crews were sorting through the debris in hopes of finding survivors.

Bill Harris, the Lee County coroner, said the three children among the dead were a 6-year-old, a 9-year-old who died at the hospital and a 10-year-old. He said he had been told that in at least one case multiple members of the same family had died.

Jones said officials had begun to identify some of the victims and he expected the death toll to rise. Several people — a number in the double digits — were still unaccounted for, he said, without giving the exact figure.

Dozens of people were sent to hospitals Sunday with injuries, with at least two in intensive care. The East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, Alabama, had received more than 60 patients as of Sunday night, according to John Atkinson, a spokesman for the center.

The National Weather Service said that officials would be surveying at least five suspected tornado tracks in southeast Alabama on Monday. On Sunday, the weather service said it believed one of the tornadoes had been at least an EF-3 storm, with wind speeds of at least 136 mph. Tornadoes were also reported to the south and east in Georgia and Florida.

Federal officials estimated Monday that 1,120 housing units had been damaged in the storm.

‘We anticipate the number of fatalities may rise,’ the sheriff says

At a news conference Monday morning, Jones said the hardest-hit location was a rural area of at least a square mile where most of the residences were mobile or manufactured homes.

“Unfortunately, we anticipate the number of fatalities may rise as the day goes on,” he added. “I have not seen this level of destruction, ever.”

More than one tornado, he said, may have touched down in Beauregard, an unincorporated community of 8,000 to 10,000 people south of Opelika, and much of the area was without electric power. Between 100 and 200 people were deployed there to conduct searches Monday, he added, adding that drones with infrared sensors that can detect heat signatures of trapped survivors would also be used.

“I would describe the damage that we have seen in the area as catastrophic,” Jones said. “Complete residences are gone.

“It looks almost as if someone took a giant knife and just scraped the ground,” he added later.

The sheriff said that dozens of homes were destroyed and that some debris appeared to have been thrown more than a half-mile by the winds. He said officials had identified many of the dead, but were still trying to contact their families.

“This hurts my heart,” he said.

“These people are tough, resilient people and it’s knocked them down,” he added, “but they’ll be back.”

A survivor was upended with her trailer

Becky Boyd, who lives in Beauregard, had heard tornado warnings before and never thought much of them. Then Sunday, her sister called: A tornado was close. Get to a safe place.

The storm struck before Boyd could even get all the way into a closet. Its force pushed her in face-first as it rolled the mobile home onto a shed. When the house stopped moving, she said, her husband could see the sky, and she was lying amid windblown insulation.

“I couldn’t get out ‘til he moved some stuff,” Boyd, 53, recalled Monday morning in a telephone interview. “I don’t know that I heard the tornado, or if it was a combination of the trailer rolling — it was just loud booms, just constant booms.”

Their trailer had crushed the shed.

“It’s totally overwhelming,” she said as she hunted through the wreckage for her purse. Locating her credit cards, she knew, could make storm recovery that much easier. “I think it took 12 years off my life, and I don’t have that many to afford to give up,” she said of the tornado.

She found her purse soon enough, but even that had insulation in it, she said. There was more searching to do, though: She needed her medicine and desperately wanted to find her cat, Loki.

There were more tornado deaths on Sunday than in all of 2018

There has been a relative lull in deadly tornadoes in the United States lately, especially in 2018, when only nine deadly tornadoes were reported, causing 10 deaths. A more typical year might see 15 to 20 deadly tornadoes, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration statistics.

Contrast that with 2011, the most ferocious year for tornadoes in decades, when 59 deadly storms claimed 553 lives. Nearly all struck in a three-month period from late February to late May, including one tornado in Missouri that left 158 people dead.

After the 2011 outbreak, which killed more than 230 people in Alabama alone, some communities ordered upgrades to storm shelters, and residents became extraordinarily sensitive about even the threat of poor weather.

Sunday’s weather was a “fairly classic” pattern for March, where colder air mixes with warmer air, said James Spann, chief meteorologist for WBMA television, the local ABC affiliate.

“This is clearly the biggest loss of life we’ve had in my state in a while,” he said. “In fact, we had more deaths in Lee County, Alabama, today than the entire United States last year.”

Alabama is a state familiar with storms

Tornadoes can strike nearly anywhere in the country when conditions are right, but they are most common in the southern Plains and the South, especially in a broad area called Dixie Alley stretching from Kansas and Oklahoma to Georgia.

In that region, modern digital systems are in wide use to alert residents by text message and on social media to approaching storms, but old-fashioned siren warnings still play an important role.

Officials advise anyone who lives in tornado-prone areas to take precautions and to have a plan that can be followed quickly when the alarm sounds, since tornadoes can develop quickly and are hard to predict with much precision or with much advance notice. But in communities that have not seen a tornado in recent memory, the danger can seem abstract, and not everyone heeds the advice to prepare.

An outpouring of help as a church prepares for evacuees

Scores of volunteers converged on Providence Baptist Church in Opelika on Monday and began sorting supplies, which were soon stacked high on folding tables.

There were piles of clothes and pyramids of blankets. Beneath one table, a cardboard box held Ziploc bags of essentials: toilet paper, toothpaste, soap and the like. Cases of bottled water lined one wall.

“This is how things work in a small community: When help is needed, everyone gets together and gets it done,” said Scarlett Baker, who was serving as the de facto mayor of the relief operation at Providence.

By midmorning, her wish list was becoming clearer: Children’s Motrin and Tylenol, so those with mild fevers could avoid crowded hospitals. Baby wipes. Ointments.

The church was preparing for a possible influx of evacuees after sundown Monday. During the day, volunteers said, they expected that many people were out trying to salvage what remained of their homes.

Here’s how you can help

If you are outside the affected area, sending money to established charities is the best way to help. The American Red Cross can be reached by phone at (334) 749-9981 or online at redcross.org. The Alabama Governor’s Relief Fund is also accepting donations.

The Red Cross is also a good place to start if you are in the area hit by the tornadoes. The organization is leading the effort to help people find family members and is working with Providence Baptist Church to establish a shelter.

The Church of the Highlands, with locations across the state, is assembling groups of volunteers.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/tornadoes-alabama-live-updates.html" id="4f0d4b78-1c17-3d7c-aae1-ea0360174f9a">The New York Times</a>.

3 Children Are Among 23 Killed in Alabama Storms

BEAUREGARD, Ala. — As search-and-rescue workers raced Monday to help the rural Alabama communities that had been ravaged by tornadoes, officials said that at least three children were among the 23 people killed by the storms.

Jones said several people were still unaccounted for and crews were sorting through the debris in hopes of finding survivors.

The National Weather Service said officials would be surveying at least five suspected tornado tracks in southeast Alabama on Monday. On Sunday, the weather service said it believed one of the tornadoes had been at least an EF-3 storm, with wind speeds of at least 136 mph. Tornadoes were also reported to the south and east in Georgia and Florida.

At a news conference Monday morning, Jones said more than one tornado may have touched down in Beauregard, an unincorporated community of 8,000 to 10,000 people south of Opelika, and much of the area was without electric power.

The sheriff said dozens of homes were destroyed and that some debris appeared to have been thrown more than a half-mile by the winds. He said officials had identified many of the dead but were still trying to contact their families.

BEAUREGARD, Ala. — As search-and-rescue workers raced Monday to help the rural Alabama communities that had been ravaged by tornadoes, officials said at least three children were among the 23 people killed by the storms.

Officials in Lee County, Alabama — where the deaths occurred — were assessing the extent of the destruction left in the wake of Sunday’s storms and were sorting through the debris in hopes of finding survivors.

Multiple children were killed, including a 6-year-old, officials said, and all of the dead were found in the same general area, just south of the city of Opelika, Alabama.

“We had several families that have probably lost everybody in their whole family,” Bill Harris, the Lee County coroner, told CNN on Monday.

Sheriff Jay Jones of Lee County said Monday that he expected the death toll to rise. Several people — a number in the double digits — were still unaccounted for, he said, without giving the exact figure.

Dozens of people were sent to hospitals Sunday with injuries, with at least two in critical condition. The East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika had received more than 60 patients as of Sunday night, according to John Atkinson, a spokesman for the center.

The National Weather Service confirmed Sunday that at least one tornado at least a half-mile wide had touched down in the southern part of Lee County, with winds of 136 to 165 mph. Tornadoes were also reported to the south and east in Georgia and Florida.

“I would describe the damage that we have seen in the area as catastrophic,” Jones said. “Complete residences are gone.”

Residents are waking up to survey the damage

At a Waffle House in Opelika, near the worst of the destruction, customers and employees traded tragic news about the storm and its aftermath Monday: Were their relatives OK? Did they have electricity? Was one highway or another passable?

“Is that open?” one woman asked while she waited at the counter. “It was closed last night,” the server replied sadly.

In Beauregard, a few miles to the south, bundled-up state troopers and sheriff’s deputies manned blockades as more blue lights flashed in the distance. The temperature stood not much higher than freezing.

How one man rode out the storm by sheltering at a gas station

Alex Miller, 27, was driving with two passengers from Savannah, Georgia, to his home in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday evening when they were alerted on their cellphones that tornadoes might be approaching. They stopped at a gas station in Columbus, Georgia, to let one wave of the storm system pass, and continued to head north, hoping to break through the worst of the weather during the lull.

As they neared Smiths Station, Alabama, they passed a gas station with a billboard toppled over. They then passed a police blockade diverting southbound traffic off the main roads. The skies darkened, the rain grew stronger — “all the ominous signs,” Miller said.

“The plan quickly pivoted from ‘We need to drive north’ to ‘We need to pull over and seek shelter immediately,'” he said.

Miller pulled into a gas station in Smiths Station and sheltered in a hallway in the back with about 10 other people, including children, and a dog. The power was out inside and the light outside continued to dim. It was “post-sunset dark,” Miller said. The wind whipped outside, in what appeared to be one of the tornadoes to hit the Lee County area.

“The energy was pretty tense,” he said.

After the worst weather abated, Miller said, he got into the car and drove north, past debris strewn around the roads. Within 15 minutes, he saw sunshine.

Sunday’s weather was a “fairly classic” pattern for March, where colder air mixes with warmer air, said James Spann, the chief meteorologist for WBMA television, the local ABC affiliate.

The Red Cross is also a good place to start if you are in the area hit by the tornadoes. The organization is leading the effort to help people find family members, and it has a shelter at Providence Baptist Church in Opelika.

BEAUREGARD, Ala. — Search-and-rescue workers rushed Monday to help communities that were pummeled by tornadoes that killed at least 23 people, wrecked homes and uprooted trees in central Alabama.

23 Dead in Alabama After Powerful Storms Strike

As darkness gave way to morning light, officials in Lee County, Alabama — where the deaths occurred — were assessing the extent of the destruction left in the wake of Sunday’s storms and were sorting through the debris in hopes of finding survivors.

At least one child was among the dead, officials said, and all of the fatalities occurred in the same general area, just south of the city of Opelika.

The ages of those who died range from under 10 to the 70s and 80s, Harris said. He also relayed reports that at least 20 people were unaccounted for.

Sheriff Jay Jones of Lee County, speaking to CNN on Monday morning, said,"We have not had anything quite like this in our area ever, that I know of.”

Sunday’s weather was a “fairly classic” pattern for March, where colder air mixes with warmer air, said James Spann, the chief meteorologist for WBMA television, the local ABC affiliate. Tornadoes are common this time of year in “Dixie Alley,” the nickname given to the Southern states vulnerable to severe weather, he said.

In 2018, 10 people were killed by tornadoes in the United States.

“It’s been very quiet,” Spann said. “We knew it’s been too quiet for too long.”

OPELIKA, Ala. — Search-and-rescue workers rushed Monday to help communities that were pummeled by tornadoes that killed at least 23 people, wrecked homes and uprooted trees in central Alabama.

Nearly eight years after a tornado outbreak that devastated major cities and small towns alike, Alabama remains wary of severe weather and the menace of tornadoes.

After the 2011 outbreak, which spawned more than 60 tornadoes in Alabama and led to more than 230 fatalities in the state, some communities ordered upgrades to storm shelters, and residents became extraordinarily sensitive about even the threat of poor weather.

<h1>BEAUREGARD, Ala. — As search-and-rescue workers raced Monday to help the rural Alabama communities that had been ravaged by tornadoes, officials said that at least three children were among the 23 people killed by the storms.</h1>

Dozens of people were sent to hospitals Sunday with injuries, with at least two in intensive care.

The National Weather Service said Monday that it believed the tornado that raced through Lee County had been an EF-4 storm, with winds of 170 mph.

Chris Darden, meteorologist-in-charge for the weather service’s Birmingham, Alabama, office, said the track of the “monster tornado” appeared to have been at least 24 miles long and that the storm had been nearly 1 mile wide.

Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama said she had spoken with President Donald Trump and received assurances of federal support.

A 10-year-old girl is among the victims

Taylor Thornton, 10, had been camping with her best friend for several days and was at the friend’s father’s mobile home in Beauregard when the storm hit Sunday.

Taylor’s mother, Ashley Thornton, said in a telephone interview that she got a call around 2 p.m. Sunday from the friend’s mother, who is divorced from the father. The mother had had no luck reaching the father by phone; could Thornton try?

When she could not get through either, her husband, David Thornton, drove toward the home, and then got out and walked when snapped trees blocked the way. When he arrived, “there was no house left,” he told his wife by phone; he recognized the place only by a motorcycle parked outside.

Thornton said her husband persuaded a sheriff’s deputy to let him onto the property, where he saw Taylor’s body. The deputy let him carry her to a waiting vehicle.

“The few times I’ve talked to him, all he’s told me was that she looked like she was sleeping,” Thornton said. When the identity of the body was confirmed, she said, family and friends “just kind of crumbled.”

As of Monday afternoon, Thornton said, she had not been told exactly how Taylor died, other than that “the tornado had gone through and destroyed everything.”

Thornton said her daughter was a smiling, well-behaved girl who loved horses and God and spending time with her best friend. “Just the sweetest, kindest little thing in the whole world,” she said.

The friend was injured in the storm but survived, Thornton said; the friend’s father and one of his friends were killed.

David Thornton, she said, “is still trying to process this — he’s having a hard time right now.”

‘We anticipate the number of fatalities may rise,’ the sheriff says

More than one tornado, he said, may have touched down in Beauregard, an unincorporated community of 8,000 to 10,000 people south of Opelika, Alabama, and much of the area was without electric power. Between 100 and 200 people were deployed there to conduct searches Monday, he added, adding that drones with infrared sensors that can detect heat signatures of trapped survivors would also be used.

“These people are tough, resilient people, and it’s knocked them down,” he said, “but they’ll be back.”

A family huddled together to ride out the storm

As the tornado pulverized the small brick house in Opelika in which three generations of Evony Lashawn Wilson’s family cowered together in a bathroom, Wilson’s 15-year-old son looked at her and said, “Mom, I don’t want to die.”

Wilson said that her son, Qumran, had long feared the weather, growing up in the shadow of the tornadoes that killed more than 230 people across Alabama in 2011. Now, his nightmares were coming true.

The tornado stripped away their roof. The bathroom walls collapsed around Wilson, 44, her son, husband and her 72-year-old mother. The wind crushed them against one another. When Wilson looked up, she saw trees and debris swirling overhead.

Her husband urged their son to hang on. Wilson pushed Qumran’s head down and told him to keep praying.

“Just the sound — it was something you never forget,” Wilson said in a telephone interview Monday morning. “You could hear everything coming apart.”

When the tornado passed, Wilson’s son and husband managed to wriggle out of the debris and went to look for help through their neighborhood of trailer homes and one-story houses that had been all but reduced to pulp. Wilson stayed behind with her mother, who has severe health problems and cannot walk far.

As they huddled in the wreckage of the bathroom, now exposed to the elements, Wilson’s phone buzzed with another tornado alert. She lay across her mother on the floor and tried to shelter both of them with a fallen bathroom cabinet as another wave of wind roared over them.

Wilson’s mother fractured her hip in the storm, and Wilson fractured her ankle. The brick house, which had belonged to Wilson’s mother, was destroyed, and so was the mobile home next door, where Wilson and her family lived.

There were more tornado deaths on Sunday than in all of 2018

An outpouring of help as a church prepares for evacuees

Here’s how you can help

This article originally appeared in <a id="7d7fb96a-40b2-428e-b83e-d4c31cac4e1c" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/tornadoes-alabama-live-updates.html">The New York Times</a>.

Jones said that several people were still unaccounted for and that crews were sorting through the debris in hopes of finding survivors.

3 children are among 23 killed in Alabama storms

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Alan Blinder and Matt Stevens

Articles written by the author

3 Children Are Among 23 Killed in Alabama Storms

3 Children Are Among 23 Killed in Alabama Storms

23 Dead in Alabama After Powerful Storms Strike

23 Dead in Alabama After Powerful Storms Strike

23 Dead in Alabama After Powerful Storms Strike

23 Dead in Alabama After Powerful Storms Strike

3 children are among 23 killed in Alabama storms