Tornado causes damage, injures three in Birmingham, Alabama

Weather forecasters from the National Weather Service warned that a strong storm crossing the central part of the state could produce hail and winds of more than 40 miles per hour. Gregory Shuford, left, and Terease Shuford keep an eye on flooding in west Montgomery, Ala., on Christmas morning Friday, Dec. 25, 2015.

City officials survey the damage caused by a tornado in a neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday.

But he said any reports of tornado-like damage in the region will be treated as if it is a tornado.

Ruthie Green went door-to-door in her Alabama neighborhood in a coat and a bicycle helmet to check on neighbors after the storm and swept debris from her front porch as more emergency responders arrived in the neighborhood.

A flood warning was also in effect for the Coosa River, swollen by up to 8 inches of rain over the past week, and threatening the city of Gadsden.

The unseasonably warm, severe weather also was responsible for seven deaths in MS and one in Arkansas.

On Thursday, Governor Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency after the severe weather.

In Coffee County, Alabama, at least 117 homes were substantially flooded and at least two dozen roads were closed.

“I been listening to the news all day so I was kind of preparing”, Green told the Associated Press.

Daisy Johnson, 68, said she and her husband rushed along with other relatives to their storm shelter across the street after they heard a tornado was headed their way.

Meteorologists said unseasonably warm temperatures caused the storms, with more rainfall expected throughout the weekend.

On Friday Jefferson County was at mercy of a twister that touched down around 5 p.m., and Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency Director Jim Coker reported that it left four persons with minor injuries that required them to be transported to local hospitals.

Jason Strunk, the football coach at Lubbock High School, said he was checking his home’s pipes and laying out cat litter for traction on his sidewalk and driveway, just as he learned growing up and living in colder climates further north. Strunk’s major concern was unprepared drivers going out on wet, icy roads.

Southern states were still cleaning up from tornadoes earlier this week that killed at least 15 people in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi.

The flooding is the result of heavy downpours that have been thrashing the southeastern USA since Wednesday, bringing record rainfalls in some areas.

Six people died in Tennessee. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said Saturday that authorities were monitoring areas for possible flooding.

Among the MS dead was a seven-year-old boy who was killed when a storm picked up and tossed the vehicle he was traveling in, fire chief Kenny Holbrook told reporters in the town of Holly Springs, where thousands greeted Christmas Day without power.