Twisters Strike Ala.; 10 Killed, Dozens Injured

A series of tornadoes swept through Alabama on Saturday, killing at least 10 people near Tuscaloosa and injuring more than five dozen others.

One tornado hit the outskirts of Tuscaloosa, another raked a rural section of northern Alabama and a third touched down in Geneva, near the Alabama-Florida line, injuring at least eight people.

“We are still trying to find out how many are unaccounted for,” said Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ted Sexton. “There were people out there Christmas shopping and all. We just don’t know where they are.”

Sexton said that the Tuscaloosa tornado hit about 1 p.m. CST and that authorities were continuing to search for victims Saturday evening. At least 54 people had been reported injured.

“It was roaring and the wind just blew. You didn’t know if you were going to live or not,” said Myrtle Bowden, who took refuge in a bathroom with her husband.

Debris was scattered along roads south of Tuscaloosa and was hanging from trees, many of them twisted and broken.

Beverly Smith’s trailer was blown off its foundation and into a tree. Smith, who took cover in the trailer’s bathroom when the tornado hit, was hospitalized with bruises, cuts and chest pains, said her brother, Kenny Thomas.

Another tornado hit in the southern part of the state just before noon, overturning cars and destroying homes, said Geneva Mayor Warren Beck.

Margaret Mixon, director of the Geneva County Emergency Management Agency, said eight people were injured, two of them severely. Five homes were destroyed and at least 20 others were damaged.

The tornado damaged a textile mill and destroyed a peanut mill in neighboring Dale County.

In the northern part of the state, trees and power lines were toppled by a tornado in Limestone County. Eight homes were destroyed.