At least 23 dead, dozens missing after tornado rips through Ala.

In parts of northeast, winter storm dumps more than a foot of snow

Associated Press

BEAUREGARD, Ala.

Rescue crews using dogs and drones searched for victims amid splintered lumber and twisted metal Monday after the deadliest U.S. tornado in nearly six years ripped through a rural Alabama community. At least 23 people were killed, some of them children.

Dozens were missing in Lee County nearly a day after the twister struck, according to the sheriff, who said that crews had combed the hardest-hit areas but that other places had yet to be searched.

The winds Sunday afternoon obliterated numerous homes, leaving huge, jumbled piles of wood and household belongings. Some homes were reduced to concrete slabs. Debris was scattered across the countryside, with shredded metal hanging from the pine trees.

“I’m not going to be surprised if we don’t come up with some more deceased. Hopefully we won’t,” Coroner Bill Harris said. He said the dead included almost entire families and at least three children, age 6, 9 and 10.

A post on the Lee-Scott Academy’s Facebook page said fourth-grader Taylor Thornton was among those killed.

On the day after the disaster, volunteers used chain saws to clear paths for emergency workers. Neighbors and friends helped one another find some of their belongings in the ruins.

The National Weather Service said one and possibly two tornadoes struck the area, with a powerful EF-4 twister with winds estimated at 170 mph blamed for most of the destruction. It carved a path nearly a mile wide and 24 miles long, said meteorologist Chris Darden.

Darden said the “monster tornado” was the deadliest twister to hit the U.S. since May 2013, when an EF-5 killed 24 people in Moore, Okla.

northeast snowstorm

boston

With the official start of spring weeks away, a winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of the northeastern U.S. overnight Monday, prompting school closures, power outages and a messy morning commute.

Temperatures were then expected to plunge into the teens overnight and linger there for the most of the week, raising the risk of dangerously icy conditions, officials and meteorologists warned.

Monday’s storm, which started Sunday night but hit the hardest in the early morning hours, was the largest storm parts of New England have seen in a relatively quiet winter.

Boston saw about 10 inches of snow, but parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts saw up to 16 inches, according to the National Weather Service.