Tornado kills 14, injures several others in US’ southeast Alabama

Numerous tornado warnings were posted across parts of Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina on Sunday

International News: An apparent tornado roared into southeast Alabama and killed at least 14 people and injured several others Sunday, part of a severe storm system that destroyed homes, snapped trees and unleashed other tornadoes around the Southeast.

Dozens of emergency responders rushed to join search and rescue efforts in hard-hit Lee County, Alabama, after what forecasters said they think was a large tornado touched down Sunday afternoon, unleashed by a powerful storm system that raked its way across parts of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.

“I can confirm 14 fatalities,” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told The Associated Press on the scene in Beauregard, the area of apparently greatest destruction. He told reporters that children were among the dead and that some people are still believed missing and that a search and rescue operation was continuing.

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“Unfortunately we believe that number is going to go up,” Jones said of the fatalities. He said the apparent twister travelled straight down a key local artery, Highway 51, and that the path of damage and destruction appeared at least a half mile wide.

Radar and video evidence showed what looked like a large tornado crossing the area near Beauregard shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday, said meteorologist Meredith Wyatt with the Birmingham, Alabama, office of the National Weather Service. Beauregard is a community about 60 miles (95 kilometers) east of Montgomery, Alabama’s capital city.