Death toll up to 16 from Southern severe storms; 7 dead in Alabama

[marmar]

AP, via the Detroit Free Press:



BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Vicious storms smacked the Deep South and toppled trees like dominoes as tornadoes howled through towns. Seven deaths were reported in Alabama, including a man killed when the storm tossed a mobile home nearly a quarter of a mile across a state highway.

Combined with earlier reported fatalities in Arkansas and Oklahoma, the confirmed death toll had risen to 16 by early Saturday — the nation's deadliest storm of the season.

Autauga County Chief Deputy Sheriff Joe Sedinger said three adult family members were killed around 11 p.m. Friday when a tornado ripped through homes in the Boone's Chapel community 24 miles north of the state capital of Montgomery.

"The tornado hit and jumped and hit and jumped again," Sedinger said. "It would do some damage and then move on." ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20110416/NEWS07/110416006/Death-toll-up-16-from-Southern-severe-storms-7-dead-Alabama?odyssey=tab|topnews|img|FRONTPAGE

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Our governnor declared ALL of Ala. a disaster zone.

These storms move from the SW to the NE, bands of them which cut a diagonal swath thru most of the state, and the bottom of the state gets hit from the storm build up in the Gulf. So most of the state will get blasted by one long line or more of severe storms.
I am lucky enough to live in the one part of town which is "sort of" protected from the wide flat ground that tornadoes prefer, but we have had a few as close as a block away in the past.
And nothing can protect you from a tree being blown on your house, esp since so many trees were root damaged during the past hurricanes, they now fall over in a good wind.

Dark stormy nights are nervous nights down here.