Brick buildings collapsed, cars were on their side and traffic poles were strewn about in the downtown area. Plumes of thick, black smoke rose over the city from a fire burning. It was not immediately known whether the storm caused the blaze.
"People have been injured, but no fatalities," Perkins said. "We have a lot of downed power lines. There is a lot of danger on the streets."The "large and extremely dangerous tornado" caused damage as it moved through the historic city, the National Weather Service said. There were confirmed reports of tree and structural damage in Selma and reports of damage in other counties, the agency said."A tornado has definitely damaged Selma.
After the tornado passed, Krishun Moore emerged from her home to the sound of children crying and screaming. She and her mother encouraged the kids to keep screaming until they found the two of them on top of the roof of a damaged apartment. She estimated the kids were about one and four years old. Both of them are OK, she said through Facebook messenger.
The weather service had issued a tornado emergency for several counties just north of the capital city of Montgomery as the same storm system moved eastward. "This is a life-threatening situation. Take shelter immediately," the weather service said of the reported tornado. In Georgia, more than 100,000 customers were without electricity just before sunset Thursday as the storm system carved a path across a tier of counties just south of Atlanta, according to PowerOutage.us.
We Canadians have the power to stop these global weather events, the carbon tax can't triple soon enough!