Tornadoes hit Alabama, at least 23 dead

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March 5, 2019

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Tornadoes hit Alabama, at least 23 dead

Source: Agencies | 00:08 UTC+8 March 5, 2019 |

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Rescuers in Alabama yesterday dug through the remnants of homes and businesses destroyed by a spate of tornadoes that killed at least 23 people, including children, the deadliest such storms to strike the United States in six years.

The tornadoes ripped through Lee County on Sunday with winds of at least 240 kilometers per hour, at the midpoint of the five-step Enhanced Fujita scale, which meteorologists use to measure tornado strength.

At least two and as many as five tornadoes hit an area of eastern Alabama near the Georgia border in the space of a few hours on Sunday afternoon, with some of the worst damage in the tiny community of Beauregard, according to the National Weather Service.

Mobile homes were tossed on their sides and ripped open, their contents strewn on the ground, live television images showed. Pieces of homes hung from trees that were not flattened by the storm.

More than 50 people were reported injured and the death toll is expected to rise, authorities said, which could make the storms deadlier than the tornado that tore through Moore, Oklahoma, in 2013, killing 24 people. The death toll was more than double the 10 people killed by tornadoes in all of 2018.

Temperatures in the state fell to 2 degrees Celsius yesterday, leaving those without heat struggling with the cold.

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Tornadoes hit Alabama, at least 23 dead

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