USA: here the damage to dozens of houses by a tornado in Alabama 0:30
(CNN) --
A tornado warning is in effect for the southern part of Atlanta after a tornado was identified over East Point, according to the National Weather Service.
This tornado is located near the Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.
The storm is moving east at 72 km/h.
In fact, the storm forced a temporary suspension of operations at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport due to thunderstorms moving through the area.
Previously, a massive tornado that tore through the Alabama city of Selma on Thursday caused "significant damage," the Selma mayor said, one of more than a dozen tornado reports made in that state alone as severe storms ripped through the Southeast. country leaving several wounded.
The "large and extremely dangerous tornado" in Selma, confirmed by the National Weather Service, impacted the city at 12:19 pm CT (1:19 pm Miami time) and continued east, the service said.
“Refrain from traveling on the roads and stay away from power lines,” Mayor James Perkins Jr. said in a Facebook post.
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Courtesy: Mike Pitts
What appeared to be a huge funnel cloud passed over the area, according to footage shared by Mike Pitts.
After it happened, Pitts' images showed houses without roofs, other roofs without tiles and roads blocked by piles of rubble.
The storm "dumped" the home of Selma resident Krishun Moore, but no one was hurt, he told CNN.
She took refuge in a bathroom with her mother.
“All we heard was wind and the whole house was shaking,” Moore described.
Selma, a city of about 17,000 people about 50 miles west of Montgomery, is the site of a historic 1965 civil rights march in which police beat and tear gassed protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a incident known as “Bloody Sunday”.
Damage from the storm is seen in Selma, Alabama, on Thursday.
Courtesy: Mike Pitts
The Selma tornado occurred as severe storms capable of tornadoes ripped through the Southeast Thursday, injuring multiple people and causing damage in several states.
More than 35 million people in the Southeast and Ohio Valley, from Louisiana east to the Carolinas and from Kentucky south to the Gulf Coast, are under some level of threat from severe storms Thursday that could include gusts. and destructive tornadoes, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
By early afternoon, tornado watches covered parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, northwestern Florida and far western North Carolina.
The highest risk of severe storms for Thursday, an "increased" risk, or level 3 of 5, is forecast for about 9.5 million people in parts of Alabama and Georgia, including the Birmingham, Montgomery and Atlanta areas, noted the prediction center.
Severe thunderstorms are especially possible in the Birmingham and Montgomery areas in the early afternoon and in the Atlanta area in the late afternoon.
Injured in Morgan County in northern Alabama
Damage reports in the Southeast and Ohio Valley were piling up Thursday as the storms progressed.
In northern Alabama's Morgan County alone, a storm caused 10 to 15 injuries Thursday morning, none of whom are believed to be in critical condition, and affected numerous buildings, the county sheriff's spokesman said. , Mike Swafford.
Streets and fields were littered with debris and downed power lines in Decatur, a Morgan County community about 25 miles southwest of Huntsville, according to images from the city's police and county sheriff's department.
Damage is seen outside a hotel in Decatur, Alabama, Thursday morning.
Courtesy: Mark G. Spychala
The siding of a Decatur hotel has come loose, according to photos taken by hotel guest Mark Spychala, who said he took shelter in a laundry room when the storm hit Thursday morning.
"We lost power and we could hear the wind and the rain" hitting the outside area, Spychala told CNN.
The National Weather Service preliminarily attributed Decatur's damage to high winds.
Several preliminary reports of tornadoes were made in the morning in Alabama, including in Winston County in northwestern Alabama and Sumter County in western Alabama, where damage to buildings was reported, the weather service said.
Downed trees and power lines were reported along several of the roads in Winston County, whose communities lie tens of miles northwest of Birmingham.
Damage is seen outside a hotel in Decatur, Alabama, Thursday morning.
Courtesy of Mark G. Spychala
“Motorists are urged to travel only on the highways in emergency situations and to be aware of the weather,” the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in a series of tweets about the damage in Winston County.
In northeastern Mississippi's Monroe County, several rural buildings were leveled or badly damaged after a storm swept through Thursday morning, video tweeted by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency shows.
No injuries were reported there, according to the agency, which indicated that a tornado may have caused the damage.
The weather service said preliminary that strong winds caused damage in the county.
Wind damage to trees and buildings was also reported elsewhere in parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky before noon, the weather service said.
CNN's Caroll Alvarado and Dave Hennen contributed to this report.