Authorities and volunteers were still assessing the damage as of press time, but a system of severe weather that brought tornadoes to West Alabama late Tuesday night caused considerable damage in the Hale County community of Akron.
“Please remember to pray for the Akron Community (Lock 8 and Oak Village Road). The Tornado did strike, but no injuries have been reported so far. We will keep you updated, but please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers as some have lost their homes,” reported Akron Mayor Jonathan Rossell on Facebook almost as soon as the storm had passed over his community.
Independent journalist Portia Shepherd reported that five families in the Lock 8 and Oak Village Rd. communities had lost their homes to the storm, which preliminary assessments by the National Weather Service classified as an EF-1.
The tornado touched down in Greene County near Eutaw, where it heavily damaged an apartment building before continuing east across the river into Hale County. It affected the Moundville area after passing through Akron. NWS reported numerous downed trees in north Hale County after the storm.
The tornadoes formed ahead of a massive thunderstorm system that passed over the state of Alabama on its way across the southeastern U.S. on Tuesday. Another tornado affected the Wilcox County community of Flatwood before passing through south Perry County and into Dallas County.
Though reports of damage, injuries, and casualties were incomplete as of press time, Alabama’s EMA director Jeff Smitherman reported early Wednesday morning that at least two people in the Montgomery area had been killed in the storm when a tree fell on their house. There were also at least three confirmed injuries according to the state agency. As Alabama EMA and the NWS investigate in the coming days, more information will become available about the extent of the damage wrought by the storm.
