Tornado hits Selma, Alabama; 7 deaths reported across South

SELMA, Alabama (AP) — Crews worked through the night searching for people trapped after a deadly storm system spawned tornadoes across parts of the US South, killing at least seven people and causing substantial damage in the historic city of Selma, Alabama.

Six died in Autauga County, Alabama, about 40 miles (64 kilometres) northeast of Selma, where a tornado cut a 20-mile (32-kilo meter) long path across two rural communities, wrecking dozens of homes, said Ernie Baggett, the county's emergency management director.

At least 12 people were injured severely enough to be taken to hospitals by emergency responders, Baggett told The Associated Press. He said crews were cutting through downed trees Thursday night to look for more people needing help.

He said about 40 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged, including several mobile homes that were launched into the air. “They weren't just blown over. They were blown a distance.”

A more comprehensive picture of the damage would emerge Friday as they search for more victims, authorities said. The National Weather Service said late Thursday that suspected tornado damage was reported in at least 14 Alabama counties and five Georgia counties.

Early Friday, tens of thousands of customers remained without power across the two states.

In Selma, a city etched in the history of the civil rights movement, the city council met on a sidewalk using lights from cellphones to declare a state of emergency.

In Georgia, a passenger died when a tree fell on a vehicle in Jackson, Butts County Coroner Lacey Prue said. In the same county southeast of Atlanta, the storm appeared to have knocked a freight train off its tracks, officials said.

Officials in Griffin, south of Atlanta, told local news outlets that multiple people had been trapped inside an apartment complex after trees fell on it. A Hobby Lobby store lost part of its roof, and firefighters cut loose a man who had been pinned for hours under a tree that fell on his house. The city imposed a curfew from 10 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Friday.

Nationwide, the weather service issued more than 40 separate tornado reports on Thursday, and Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina and North Carolina all had tornado warnings for a time. The tornado reports were not yet confirmed and some could be classified as wind damage once assessments are done.

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