An Alabama engine mechanic took refuge in a shipping container as a tornado from a violent storm decimated his shop and killed two of his neighbours along its destructive path across Alabama and Georgia.
The harrowing stories of David Hollon and other survivors of Thursday's storm are emerging as residents comb through the wreckage wrought by tornadoes and blistering winds that have led to the deaths of at least nine people.
In Alabama's rural Autauga County, where at least seven people have died, Hollon and his workers saw a massive tornado churning toward them. They needed to get to shelter — immediately.
Hollon said they ran into a metal shipping container near the back of his garage because the container had been anchored to the floor with concrete. Once inside, Hollon began frantically dialling his neighbour on the phone. But as they heard the garage being ripped apart by the storm, the call kept going to voicemail.
The storm passed and they emerged, only to find the body of his neighbour in the street, he said. Another neighbor up the road had also died, a family member said.
“I guess we did a lot better than most. We got damage, but we're still here,” Hollon, 52, said in an interview Saturday as he walked amidst the remains of his garage, stepping through a field littered with battered cars, shattered glass, snapped tree branches, splintered wood and other debris.
Leighea Johnson, a 54-year-old cafeteria worker who also lives in Autauga County, stood among the strewn remains of her trailer home.
She pointed to a tall pile of rubble that she identified as her bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.
A swing set she had in her backyard was now across the street, mangled among some trees. Her outdoor trampoline had been wrapped around another set of trees in a neighbour's front yard.
“The trailer should be here, and now it's not,” Johnson said, pointing to a slab covered in debris, “And it is all over the place now.”
The storm brought powerful twisters and winds to Alabama and Georgia that uprooted trees, sent mobile homes airborne, derailed a freight train, flipped cars, cracked utility poles and downed power lines, leaving thousands without electricity. Suspected tornado damage was reported in at least 14 counties in Alabama and 14 counties in Georgia, according to the National Weather Service.
Early Sunday, President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Alabama and ordered federal aid to supplement recovery efforts in affected areas.
Autauga County officials said the tornado had winds of at least 136 mph (218 kph) and levelled damage consistent with an EF3, two steps below the most powerful category of twister.
County authorities have said at least a dozen people were hospitalized and about 40 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged, including mobile homes that were launched into the air. Residents described chaotic scenes as the storm spun toward them. People rushed into shelters, bathtubs and sheds as the winds bore down. In one case, a search crew found five people, trapped but unharmed, inside a storm shelter after a wall from a nearby house fell onto it.