Tornado survivor on massive twister that ripped through her community: It sounded like a train
The National Weather Service says an EF4 tornado with winds of 170 mph touched down in Lee County, Alabama; Liz Hickman describes riding out the storm with her grandchildren.
The deadliest U.S. tornado in nearly six years that ripped through a rural Alabama community Sunday afternoon came so fast there was less than 10 minutes of warning time before touchdown, according to The National Weather Service.
USA TODAY reported that on average in Alabama, there is about a 15- minute lead time for tornado warnings. On Sunday, the time was 8 to 9 minutes, according to Holly Allen, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Birmingham.
At least 23 people were killed, some of them children.
Lee County Coroner Bill Harris said at a Monday afternoon news conference that the children killed were ages 6, 9, and 10.
CNN identified the youngest victim: Armando Hernandez, 6, whose family also lost their home in the twister.
The news outlet also reported about another of the children who died in the tornado: Taylor Thornton, a fourth-grader at Lee-Scott Academy, a private school in Auburn, Alabama.
Carol Dean found her wedding dress among the wreckage of her mobile home. But the storm took her 53-year-old husband. She said David Wayne Dean was at home Sunday afternoon and had texted a friend to beware when the tornado hit.
“He didn’t make it out,” she said.
Dean said she rushed home from her job at Walmart when she couldn’t reach her husband on the phone. She pushed her way past sheriff’s deputies who tried to keep her out of the damaged area. Her children had found David Dean’s body in a neighbor’s yard.
“They took me down to him,” Dean said, “and I got to spend a little time with him before they took him away.”
Harris warned that the overall death toll could still increase as searches continue.
The National Weather Service said one and possibly two tornadoes struck the area Sunday afternoon, with a powerful EF-4 twister with winds estimated at 170 mph blamed for most of the destruction.
The bigger tornado carved a path nearly 1 mile wide and 24 miles long, stretching toward Georgia, said Chris Darden, the agency’s chief meteorologist in Birmingham.
The killer winds left shredded metal dangling from the trees and obliterated homes, leaving little more than concrete slabs.
PULPIT LEFT STANDING AFTER STORM DEVASTATES RURAL GEORGIA TOWN
Dozens remained missing in Lee County nearly a day later, according to the sheriff, who said that crews had combed the hardest-hit areas but that the search was far from over.
The twister was part of a powerful storm system that slashed its way across the Deep South, spawning numerous tornado warnings in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.
It seemed to hit hardest in Beauregard, an unincorporated community of roughly 10,000 people about 60 miles east of Montgomery near the Georgia state line.
“Everybody in Beauregard is a real close-knit family,” said Jonathan Clardy, who huddled with his family inside their Beauregard trailer as the tornado ripped the roof off. “Everybody knows everybody around here. Everybody is heartbroken.”
Beauregard, named for a Confederate general, is in a rural corner of the same Alabama county that is home to Auburn University. The community has a few small stores, two schools and a volunteer fire department dotting the main highway that runs through town.
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Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said President Trump called her cellphone to offer help.
At a Monday news conference, Ivey said Trump called her around 8:15 a.m. She said he told her, “of course you’ve got my support.” Trump has told the Federal Emergency Management Agency to give Alabama “the A Plus treatment.”
Addressing storm victims in one hard-hit county, Ivey said, “I want you to know I’ve got your back. We will do everything in our power to help the citizens of Lee County recover.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.