SELMA, Ala. (AP) – Stunned residents scrambled to retrieve their belongings and rescue crews pulled survivors from collapsed homes Friday after a rotating tornado storm system killed at least nine people as it tore through parts of Georgia and the state of Alabama. .
The widespread destruction came a day after powerful storms toppled mobile homes, sent trees uprooted through buildings, snapped trees and light poles and derailed a freight train.
Those who got out with their lives gave thanks as they searched through the rubble for anything worth saving.
“God was safe with us,” Tracey Wilhelm said as she looked at the destroyed remains of her mobile home in Autauga County, Alabama.
He was at work Thursday when a tornado lifted his mobile home off its foundation and tossed it several feet into a pile of rubble. Her husband and their five dogs fled to a shed that remained intact, she said. Rescuers later found them inside unharmed.
A search team also found five people unharmed but trapped in a shelter after a wall from an adjacent home fell on top of it, Autauga County Coroner Buster Barber said. Someone inside had a phone and kept calling for help.
The National Weather Service, which was working to confirm twists and turns, said suspected tornado damage was reported in at least 14 counties in Alabama and 14 in Georgia. Temperatures were expected to drop below freezing overnight in the worst-hit areas of both states, where more than 30,000 homes and businesses were without power by nightfall.
The tornado blamed for killing at least seven people in rural Autauga County left behind damage consistent with an EF3 tornado, which is just two notches below the strongest tornado category. The tornado had winds of at least 136 mph (218 km/h), the weather service said.
Downtown Selma, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest, also suffered severe damage before the severe weather moved into Georgia, south of Atlanta.
James Carter’s home in Selma was damaged as the tornado tore through the city.
“I was at my house and I started hearing a little noise like a train. The closer it was, the louder it was. When it passed over the house, the whole house shook. My mom was laying on the bed and I tried to put my body on top of her to protect her,” Carter said.
At least 12 people were taken to the hospital, Autauga County Emergency Management Director Ernie Baggett said as crews cleared downed trees to search for survivors.
About 40 homes were destroyed or badly damaged, including several mobile homes that were blown up, he said.
“They weren’t just blown up,” he said. “They were thrown some distance.”
In Selma, the city council met on a sidewalk using cell phone lights and declared a state of emergency.
A 5-year-old boy who was driving a vehicle was killed by a falling tree in Butts County, central Georgia, said James Stallings, director of emergency management and homeland security for Georgia. He said a parent who was driving suffered serious injuries.
Elsewhere, a state Department of Transportation worker was killed while responding to storm damage, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said. He did not provide further details.
Kemp surveyed some of the worst storm damage by helicopter. In some areas, he said, rescue teams had to dig out collapsed houses to free trapped survivors.
“We know people who have been trapped in houses where literally the whole house collapsed and they were under the crawl space,” Kemp told reporters.
The governor said the storm caused damage across the state, with some of the worst in Troup County, near the Georgia-Alabama border, where more than 100 homes were damaged. At least 12 people were treated at a hospital in Spalding County, south of Atlanta, where the Weather Service confirmed at least two tornadoes touched down.
The storm hit Spalding County as mourners gathered for a vigil at Peterson Funeral Home in Griffin. About 20 people rushed to seek shelter in a bathroom and office when a loud crash was heard as a large tree fell on the building.
“When I walked out, I was completely shocked,” said Sha-Meeka Peterson-Smith, the funeral home’s director of operations. “I heard it all, but I didn’t know how bad it really was.”
The uprooted tree crashed into the facade of the building, he said, destroying an observation room, a lounge and an office. No one was injured.
The tornado that hit Selma cut a wide path through the central area. Brick buildings collapsed, oak trees were uprooted, cars were tossed to the side, and power lines were left hanging. Several people suffered serious injuries, Selma Mayor James Perkins said, but no deaths were reported.
“We’re strong, resilient people here and we’re going to get this thing back together, but we’re going to need help,” Perkins said.
Kathy Bunch was at the Salvation Army Service Center in Selma when the tornado sirens sounded. He huddled in a back room and prayed as a loud roar passed through the brick building.
“It blew the roof off. He broke the windows,” Bunch said. “And I’m just thankful to God that he’s alive.”
Selma workers used heavy equipment to lift splintered wooden structures and damaged siding Friday, while utility poles bent at odd angles and power lines sagged across the street.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey visited the city and pledged to ask President Joe Biden to expedite a major disaster declaration to get aid flowing. Officials said federal assistance will be critical for communities like Selma, where nearly 30 percent of the city’s 18,000 residents live in poverty.
“It was much worse than anything I had imagined or seen on TV. The roofs are just gone and the trees look like toothpicks,” Ivey said as he surveyed the damage to Selma.
Located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Alabama’s capital, Montgomery, Selma was a flashpoint of the civil rights movement, where state troops brutally attacked black people who marched nonviolently to protest for voting rights on the Edmund Pettus bridge on March 7, 1965.
Three factors — a natural La Nina weather cycle, warming in the Gulf of Mexico likely related to climate change and a decadal shift in tornado activity — combined to create Thursday’s unusual tornado outbreak, said Victor Gensini, professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois. University that studies tornado trends.
Martin reported from Woodstock, Georgia. Associated Press writers Sharon Johnson in Selma; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Sara Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland; Seth Borenstein of Denver; and Selma, Alabama-based photographer Butch Dill contributed to this report.
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