Many Injured as Deadly Storms Strikes in Alabama
January 23, 2012
At least three people lost their lives and dozens of others were hurt when a tornado struck in Jefferson County Alabama near Birmingham early Monday morning. Some of the injured have been hospitalized but the county Emergency Management Agency have not yet released just how many.
The early morning tornado damage has not yet been estimated in dollars because the focus is now on search and rescue. The damage however is being described as “extensive”. Two of the people who were killed were in Cedar Point which was a town that was especially hard hit by the 3:30am storm that caught most off surprise – especially in the month of January as tornado activity is untypical during this month.
Forecasters are calling for heavy thunderstorms today (Jan 23) with winds in excess of 50 miles per hour for the area. The bad weather will slow search and rescue efforts. Officials in Jefferson County say that they will “do whatever it takes” to look for victims in damaged homes and other buildings irregardless of how bad the weather becomes.
Thousands of people in Arkansas are without power as that state also had tornadoes on the ground Monday morning. Forecasters are warning that heavy thunderstorms and tornadoes can do further damage throughout Monday. A twister ripped through an area near Fordyce – a small community an hour and a half south of Little Rock Sunday night, doing damage to homes and knocking down trees and power lines as it moved through.
Alabama’s governor Robert Bentley has declared a state of emergency so that funding is made available to aid communities which have damaged. It may take several days to put a dollar amount on exactly how much damage was caused. It also may be days until many of the tens of thousands of people now without power have their power restored. There are many reports of power lines down in Jefferson County and several surrounding counties.
In the northeastern portion of the country, a quick moving storm system stretching from mid-Pennsylvania eastward dumped twelve inches of snow over the weekend, causing power outages and hazardous driving conditions. In the upper Midwest, freezing rain over the weekend has made roads and sidewalks slippery from south Minnesota into Michigan. This storm activity has resulted in many students having Monday off from school as it was deemed too dangerous to put school buses on the roads.
