United States,MAR 04:
At least 14 people, some of them children, died after a tornado swept through Lee County, Alabama on Sunday, and the death toll was expected to rise as rescuers searched through the rubble of destroyed homes, authorities said.Emergency workers faced a grim night of pulling the dead and injured from the wreckage of homes and businesses. “The challenge is the sheer volume of the debris where all the homes were located,” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said in an interview with CNN. “It`s the most I`ve seen that I can recall.”
Storms, including at least one apparent tornado, uprooted trees and destroyed homes in neighboring Georgia, initially knocking out power to 21,000 customers, said Georgia Power spokeswoman Meredith Stone. That number was reduced by more than half later on Sunday evening, she said.On Twitter, US President Donald Trump urged residents of Alabama and other areas affected by the storms to be “careful and safe.” “Tornadoes and storms were truly violent and more could be coming,” Trump wrote. “To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!”In Alabama, Lee County Coroner Bill Harris said the death toll could rise. “We`ve still got people being pulled out of rubble,” he told the Birmingham News newspaper early on Sunday evening. “We`re going to be here all night.”The East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika said in a statement that it was treating more than 40 patients as a result of the tornado and expected to receive more. Some patients had been sent to other hospitals, it added.Severe weather unleashed one of many possible tornadoes that threatened the Southern United States on Sunday afternoon.
