Series of tornadoes leave at least 9 dead in the US, and Alabama speaks of new victims

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At least nine people have died as a result of the impact of tornadoes that have hit the southeastern United States in recent days, destroying homes and leaving tens of thousands without power. Storms stretched from Mississippi to Georgia.

The state of Alabama, however, was the hardest hit and is the one with the highest number of victims – seven confirmed by the end of the afternoon of this Friday (13). Buster Barber, Autauga County coroner, said the death toll is still expected to rise. “There are bodies being found as we speak,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

This Friday, rescue teams were dedicated to trying to find a series of missing people in the region, through which at least five tornadoes passed. One of them, according to the National Weather Service, covered almost 250 km.

In the same state, the storm caused widespread damage in Selma, a historic city for the civil rights movement in the 1960s. One of the tornadoes ripped off roofs, destroyed stores and homes, uprooted trees and scattered debris across the region.

The municipal administration urged residents to stay away from damaged power lines and avoid displacement.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey of the Republican Party declared a state of emergency in six counties, including Autauga. In this, the director of the emergency service said that schools were responsible for saving dozens of lives, for having prohibited students from returning home early in the midst of extreme weather.

Ray Hogg, a resident of the area, was moved to a shelter inside a country club. “You could hear the sound of breaking glass everywhere,” he told Reuters. “We could hear the sound of the roof literally being ripped off right above our heads.”

In the southeast of the state, three carriages of a freight train were knocked off the tracks. The accident blocked traffic, but no one was injured.

In Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp confirmed the deaths of two people. A tree falling on a car killed a five-year-old child and left an adult in serious condition. An agent participating in rescue operations was the other victim. “Our entire family is devastated by this tragedy,” Kemp tweeted.

For experts, tornadoes like those hitting the southeastern US at this time are related to the worsening climate crisis – which multiplies the occurrence of extreme events, in the US and in other parts of the planet.

In October of last year, Hurricane Ian left more than 100 people dead in Florida and the Carolinas. At the time, several roads were flooded and blocked by fallen trees, and more than 700,000 businesses and homes were without power in Florida alone. The number of people without electricity surpassed 2 million customers on the first night of the storm in the state.

Insurers were preparing to spend between $28 billion (R$151 billion) and $47 billion (R$254 billion) on claims for what could be the costliest storm in Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

In December 2021, tornadoes that hit six states, Kentucky being the most impacted, left more than 90 dead. At the time, President Joe Biden said he would ask the Environmental Protection Agency to examine the relationship between the phenomena and climate change.

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