Floods, tornadoes tear through South

An EF0 is the classification for the weakest type of a tornado – a tornado that has winds of up to 75 miles per hour. Their preliminary report is that two tornadoes hit the area, one near Coaling in Tuscaloosa County and the other near downtown Birmingham.

Damage caused by a tornado is seen in a neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, Saturday. The tornado in Midfield also was classified as EF0, Aaron said.

We now have a better idea of the force of the storm that hit Birmingham Friday night. A Christmas Tree stands among damage done to a home on Falcon Road in Selmer, Tenn., Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015, after a tornado passed through the area Wednesday evening.

In the town of Rowlett near Garland, police spokesman Detective Cruz Hernandez said several people were injured although the exact number was not immediately clear. No deaths or injuries were reported. It’s part of the same cell that warranted an earlier tornado warning in Tuscaloosa County, southwest of the Jefferson.

The death toll from storms in the southern United States has risen to 18.

Two deaths attributable to weather were reported Saturday in MS: two people who have been missing since Wednesday, bringing that state’s death toll to 10.

In Texas, meanwhile, residents hunkered down for what the National Weather Service was calling a “historic blizzard“.

Between 6 to 15 inches of snow are in the forecast for the region, which includes Amarillo and Lubbock. “We still have some homes that have been demolished and not everyone in the homes has been accounted for”, Hernandez said. “They really don’t know how to drive in this kind of stuff”. The state Department of Emergency Management said eight storm-related injuries were reported.

Six people in Missouri, as well as five USA citizens in IL died due to severe floods, the ABC News channel said Sunday.

Meteorologists said unseasonably warm temperatures caused the storms, with more rainfall expected throughout the weekend. Tornadoes were possible and residents were being asked to remain alert.

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

Elsewhere in the region, where the weather had calmed, dozens of people faced Christmas having lost their homes and possessions.

Bentley, who has declared a state of emergency, toured heavily impacted areas and the shelters set up there on Saturday.

The youngest victim there was a seven-year-old boy who was killed in a vehicle with his family.

The National Weather Service in Huntsville warned residents to avoid driving in areas where flooding was expected.

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

Bishop says the tornado outbreak at this time of the year for North Texas occurs “from time to time… but it’s certainly not something that happens regularly”.