Residents tried to save their belongings while rescuers pulled survivors from the ruins.
That was the scenario this Friday in places like Selma, Alabama, where entire houses collapsed due to the passage of a tornado system that left at least nine dead in this state and Georgia.
Violent storms tossed mobile homes into the air, smashed trees into buildings, toppled utility poles and trees and derailed a freight train Thursday.
The day after, the destruction could be seen with the naked eye.
Those who were able to save their lives gave thanks as they sifted through the wreckage for anything worth salvaging.
“
God sure was with us
,” Tracey Wilhelm said as she viewed the vandalized remains of her trailer home in Alabama's Autauga County.
She was working Thursday when a tornado ripped her mobile home off its foundation and tossed it several feet into a pile of rubble.
Her husband and their five dogs hurried into a shed that was left untouched, she said.
Rescuers later found them unharmed inside.
This drone image shows damage from a tornado on Friday, January 13, 2023, in Selma, Alabama.
DroneBase via AP
A search team also found
five people uninjured but trapped in a storm shelter
after a wall from an adjacent house fell on them, said Buster Barber, Autauga County Medical Examiner.
Someone inside had a phone and was constantly calling for help.
The National Weather Service, which was working to confirm that it was a tornado, said suspected
tornado damage was reported in at least 14 Alabama counties and 14 Georgia counties.
Temperatures were forecast to plunge below freezing overnight in hard-hit areas of both states, where more than 30,000 homes and businesses remained without power into the evening.
["We are quite afraid": death in the south of the country by a chain of tornadoes]
The tornado that is believed to have killed at least seven people in rural Autauga County caused damage that matches that of a category EF3 tornado, which is just two degrees below the most powerful category.
The tornado had winds of at least 136 miles per hour (218 kilometers per hour), the weather service said.
"The house was shaking"
Downtown Selma, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) to the southwest, also sustained heavy damage before stormy weather moved into Georgia, south of Atlanta.
James Carter's home in Selma was damaged when the tornado made its way through the city.
“I was at home and
I started to hear a little sound like a train
.
The closer it got, the louder it got.
By the time it passed over the house, the whole house was shaking.
My mom was lying on the bed, and I tried to put my body on top of her to protect her," Carter stated.
The climate emergency has generated that dangerous tornadoes are now more frequent
Jan 13, 202302:18
At least 12 people were taken to hospitals, said Ernie Baggett, Autauga County emergency management director, as rescue workers cut downed trees looking for survivors.
About 40 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, including several mobile homes that were thrown into the air, he said.
“They weren't just shot down,” he said.
"
They were thrown into the distance
."
