TULLAHOMA, TN — Unusual November tornadoes ripped through the Mid-South Tuesday and Wednesday, destroying homes and businesses and killing five people in Alabama and Tennessee.
The National Weather Service issued more than a half dozen tornado warnings Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning for parts of southern Tennessee and northern Alabama as a line of storms pushed through the region. On Wednesday afternoon, a second round of storms spawned at least two more tornadoes in the Atlanta metroplex, in Carroll County southwest of the city and in Cobb County near the Six Flags theme park.
A tornado in Jackson County, Alabama, killed three people when it tore through a mobile home park. In neighboring DeKalb County, a twister hit a 24-hour day care center, destroying the building and leaving four children critically injured. Twenty-five homes and six poultry operations were destroyed in DeKalb County, and 15 to 20 buildings were leveled in Jackson County.
A husband and wife, reportedly a Bloomingdale, Ga. firefighter and his wife, were killed in Polk County in extreme southeastern Tennessee. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said nine other Tennesseans were injured as the line of dangerous storms hugged the 35th parallel, the line of latitude that serves as Tennessee’s border with its southern neighbors.
Hundreds of trees were downed in Coffee County, halfway between Nashville and Chattanooga, and at least five homes were damaged. In Tullahoma, more than 10,000 people were without power Wednesday morning, and schools were cancelled.
Earlier Tuesday night, six tornadoes were confirmed in Mississippi, where Tupelo was inundated with more than 4 inches of rain. No injuries were reported from those storms, though property damage is widespread.
Tornadoes are not unheard of in November — historically, Alabama averages six, Mississippi five and Tennessee three during the month — but typically the twisters hit in the earlier part of the month rather than at its tail end. In December, tornado probability is cut by more than half in those states, although an unusually warm Christmastime in 2015 spawned three days of supercells, with storms killing 15.
Image via NOAA
By J.R. Lind (Patch Staff) – November 30, 2016 4:03 pm ET
