Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/SELMA: Central Alabama authorities have said that a giant, swirling storm system billowing across the southern US killed at least six people on Thursday and spawned a tornado that shredded the walls of houses, toppled roofs, or uprooted trees in Selma.
Storms slam southern US
Ernie Baggett, an emergency management director in Autauga County, Alabama, told The Associated Press (AP) he could confirm six fatalities were scattered across multiple houses in the Old Kingston community. Baggett said that mobile homes and conventional homes were both damaged.
According to the AP, Baggett said that “It seems to have been a couple of different houses where citizens were at home.”
He said that at least twelve people were wounded severely enough to be taken to hospitals by emergency responders. Baggett said that he didn’t know the extent of their wounds.
Autauga County, Alabama, is 41 miles northeast of Selma.
Baggett said that officials estimate that 40 to 50 houses were damaged and destroyed by storms that cut a strip across the county. He said crews were focused on Thursday evening on cutting through downed trees to look for people who may be wounded.
Baggett said that “Search and rescue is really more what’s going on right now.”
