Massive storms on Friday moved through Alabama and Florida, injuring as many as six people, damaging several mobile homes and power lines.
On Friday morning, The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia. According to the Weather Service, the primary threats were “intense tornadoes” and “possible scattered damaging wind gusts” of up to 70 miles per hour.
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The service will not be able to verify whether tornadoes caused the damage until after officials conduct full assessments on Saturday, said Caitlin Ford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mobile, Ala.
“It looked like all the trailers just exploded,” Sheriff Jackson said of the scene.
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“The roofs were completely gone. The walls were gone. The mobile homes just mostly had the frames left, and half of those were turned upside down or bent in half,” he added.
The New York Times reported that those injured were taken to hospitals. Two people with more severe injuries were transferred to larger hospitals in Mobile, but none of the injuries were life-threatening, and no fatalities were fatalities.
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One man was asleep in his mobile home when the winds picked up, and he woke up in the woods, Sheriff Jackson said, adding, “He’s alive and well, and he’s a very very lucky man.”
In the last four years there’s been an increase in strong storms.
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“We’ve been having these issues a lot lately, it feels like,” he said. “I’d say we’re having more damage from straight line winds and tornadoes than we’ve had in the past.”
According to a preliminary damage report, trees across a 50-yard area were blown down in an unpopulated area of Walton County.