Tornado Outbreak Kills 35 as Storm Warnings Move South
In Alabama, one person was confirmed dead in the east-central county of Tallapoosa as more tornadoes touched down overnight, state authorities said. Storms also crossed over parts of neighboring Georgia overnight, but there was only one reported injury and no fatalities as of Saturday morning. Tornado watches remained in effect for parts of Georgia, Alabama and Florida on Saturday morning.
In Indiana, where 14 people were killed by Friday's storms, crews worked through the night to clear roads and prepare for rescue efforts Saturday after a tornado gashed through the town of Henryville, destroying the high school and tossing a school bus into a local restaurant.
Many schools and business closed early across the region Friday, heeding warnings from local meteorologists that approaching weather systems carried a high probability of tornadoes.
Kevin Harned, head meteorologist at local television station WAVE 3, said he always wants viewers to take tornado predictions seriously, "but this time I said everything I could to be clear that they needed to take cover."
In Kentucky, the official death toll from Friday's storms stood at 17 as of late Saturday morning, authorities said. Four were reported dead in each of Morgan County and Laurel County, three in Kenton County, and two each in Menifee, Johnson and Lawrence counties, according to state authorities. All of the counties are in eastern Kentucky.
Three people died in Ohio, all in Clermont County in the state's southwest, said Tamara McBride, a spokeswoman for Ohio's Emergency Management Agency. She said the county had suffered "significant damage," but it wasn't yet clear early Saturday exactly how severe. No one was unaccounted for, and the death toll in the state wasn't expected to rise, she said.
In Tennessee, counties near Chattanooga and Nashville appeared among the hardest-hit. Emergency officials said 33 people in the state were injured but that there were no reports of fatalities as of Saturday morning. More than 200 homes were damaged after several counties reported tornadoes, and 18,650 people were without power early Saturday.
Three Tennessee residents were killed Feb. 29, when tornadoes also touched down in the state.
In Alabama, 11 people were injured in addition to the one person killed, said Yasamie August, a spokeswoman at the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. Nine of the injured were in northernmost Alabama, where at least 40 homes were reported destroyed and an additional 100 with heavy damage as of Friday afternoon. A maximum-security prison was also damaged, but authorities said inmates were secure and there were no reports of serious injuries at the prison.
The remaining casualties were in Tallapoosa County in east-central Alabama. Emergency crews were carrying out damage assessments early Saturday, but Alabama authorities on Saturday didn't expect the number of casualties to rise significantly.
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