Devastating Tornado injures three in Birmingham

Alabama has been hit with storms and heavy rain since Wednesday, and the Weather Service issued flash flood warnings around the region for Friday.

Lightning illuminates a house after a tornado touched down in Jefferson County, Ala., damaging several houses, Friday, Dec. 25, 2015, in Birmingham, Ala.

There have been no reports of fatal casualties.

The Alabama tornado is the latest development in an ongoing series of storms that has hammered the South during Christmas week. The EMA said the National Weather Service will have to determine whether a tornado touched down in Coaling or if the damage was caused by straight-line winds. But the agency is warning resident there and in neighbouring Chilton County to take cover.

“It makes you thankful to be alive with your family”, he said.

In Linden, Tennessee, Tony Goodwin ducked into a storm shelter with seven others as the storm passed.

The American Red Cross of North Mississippi’s disaster program manager, Nicholas Garbacz (GAR-bach), says members of the Marine Corps helped turn the Eddie Smith Multi-Purpose Center in Holly Springs into a substitute Santa’s Workshop.

The Birmingham Police Department was not immediately available for comment. The agency says the deaths were weather-related.

As of 6:45 pm, the severe weather threat looks to be subsiding, but Alabama will continue to watch for the chance of severe weather for the rest of the evening.

Birmingham Mayor William Bell said there were no fatalities that they know of.

Barbara Perkins and her husband were hunkered down inside a closet when violent winds peeled the roof off their MS home. A visiting insurance agent told them the house was a total loss.

Storms earlier in the week produced deadly tornadoes in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas.

Perkins’ neighbors weren’t as fortunate.

Newly homeless, Perkins said she was happy just to be alive – especially after learning two of her neighbors had died in the storm.