Teams from the National Weather Service fanned out across Alabama on Sunday to assess storm damage from Saturday’s severe weather.
As of Sunday night five tornadoes have been confirmed: Three in north Alabama and two in central Alabama — including the deadly Pickens County storm.
The National Weather Service in Birmingham said its survey team confirmed a tornado hit Pickens County near Carrollton and gave it a preliminary rating of EF2 with top winds of 134 mph.
The Pickens County storm is being blamed for three deaths and seven injuries on Settlement Road near Carrollton.
That tornado touched down at 11 a.m. less than 2 miles east of Pickensville and was on the ground for 6.33 miles, according to a preliminary report from the weather service, lifting just less than 7.5 miles southwest of Reform. It was 1,056 yards wide at its peak.
Several homes were damaged along the path, but the tornado likely peaked in intensity along Settlement Road. The weather service said numerous homes were damaged or destroyed on the west side of Settlement Road, while homes on the east side of the road received minimal damage.
According to the weather service, “of the homes destroyed, six were site-built homes. Four manufactured homes were completely destroyed, three of which had anchoring systems that failed. All four manufactured home frames were found considerable distances from the home sites. Three fatalities occurred in two of these manufactured homes on Settlement Road.”
All of the injuries occurred on Settlement Road, according to the report. However, other homes not on that road were also damaged. A total of 22 homes were damaged in some way, according to the weather service.
The National Weather Service in Huntsville also had meteorologists out in the field on Sunday. They confirmed a tornado hit the Brindlee Mountain School area in Marshall County and gave it a preliminary rating of EF2.
The tornado was on the ground for 0.22 miles, and was 150 yards wide at its peak.
It touched down at 1:19 p.m. on Saturday and was on the ground for only 5 minutes, but it did a lot of damage in that short time.
The tornado touched down just southwest of Brindlee Mountain Primary School and destroyed the gym, 10 classrooms and the lunchroom. If that wasn’t bad enough several trees were snapped or uprooted and a set of bleachers was thrown more than 150 yards from one side of the school to the other, the weather service said in a preliminary report.
Several Dumpsters were moved and power poles were snapped, which fell onto the school’s awning and roof.
The weather service also confirmed the tracks of two other north Alabama tornadoes.
One was an EF1 that started in Cullman County near Joppa and moved to the Hog Jaw community in Marshall County. It had maximum winds of 100 mph, a path length of 1.85 miles and a path width of 60 yards, according to a preliminary report from the weather service.
EF1 tornado damage was found in Joppa, with trees downed near or on houses.
The weather service said “witnesses in the city of Joppa reported a rain-wrapped tornado along the tornado’s path, noting that damage ended almost as quickly as the heavy rain began and ended.”
The other was an EF0 that hit Holly Pond in Cullman County and had maximum winds of 80. It touched down Saturday at 1:03 p.m. near the center of town and was on the ground for 0.21 miles.
The tornado damaged the roof at the old Waterbrook Restaurant, the weather service said, and also did some roof damage to Holly Pond High School.
The Birmingham office said storm damage in southern Greene County near Forkland was not caused by a tornado but by straight-line winds that were estimated as high as 75 mph.
The area with the most concentrated damage began near Parkers Fish Camp Road and the Tombigbee River and stretched northeastward for just over 6 miles.
Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped along that path, and five to 10 homes had varying degrees of damage, according to the weather service. Two vehicles were also damaged by falling trees. Another tree broke the water main to the city of Forkland and thousands of gallons of water spilled from the water tower.
The weather service in Birmingham on Sunday night added another tornado to its count, an EF1 in Barbour County in east-central Alabama.
That tornado had top winds of 88 mph, a path length of 5.8 miles and a path width of 275 yards.
It touched down at 4:30 p.m. Saturday near Threatt Road just southwest of Bakerhill. It did mostly tree damage before lifting 4.71 miles northeast of Bakerhill. However it did damage to an outbuilding and flipped a basketball goal, the weather service said.
A potent storm system generated multiple severe storms on Saturday that caused damage statewide. Most of the damage was caused by strong straight-line winds.
The storms also caused damage across the Southeast and are being blamed for at least 11 deaths.
