Breaking: Many Tornadoes In Georgia, Alabama. It's Quite An Outbreak

Extreme tornado damage in Lee County, Alabama

8 PM UPDATE

The death toll from the tornado in Lee County, Alabama has risen to 14.

That means there were more tornado deaths in one county in one afternoon than in all of the United States in the entire year of 2018.

Last year was a record low for tornado deaths, but sadly, that trend has not continued into 2019.

Today's death toll could easily rise, as people search for victims. Plus, in the past hour, possible tornadoes touched down near Columbia, South Carolina and Tallahassee, Florida. There were also signs on radar that a possibly strong tornado roared right through Cairo, Georgia. We don't have an immediate confirmation of that, though.

Judging from the damage in photographs and video from Lee County, Alabama, this was probably an EF-4 tornado.  EF4s and EF5s are the strongest tornadoes possible and are responsible for most tornado deaths.

If the Alabama tornado was an EF4, it will be the nation's first one since April, 2017. That is an unusually long time for the United States to go without such a strong tornado.

6:30 PM UPDATE: WSFA-TV is now reporting ten fatalities from the tornadoes in Lee County Alabama.

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It's shaping up to be a terrible tornado day in Alabama and Georgia, as tornado warnings have been firing off left and right all afternoon.

There are at least two confirmed fatalities in Beauregard, Alabama, television station WRBL reports. Photos coming out of that area show houses either destroyed or with major damage.

Details on damage and injuries were very sketchy as of 6:30 p.m., which is typical when an outbreak of twisters is still in progress. Most everybody is wisely busy warning people in the path of tornadoes instead of detailing what's already happened.

A video, which you can see at the bottom of this post, shows numerous houses in Lee County completely leveled. Watching the video, you pray that the people who lived in those houses weren't home when the tornado struck.

Fox 5 in Atlanta is reporting there were at least two reports of "large and extremely dangerous" tornadoes this afternoon. One of those giant tornadoes was reported not far from Auburn, Alabama shortly after 3 p.m. this afternoon. Less than 45 minutes later, another big, very dangerous tornad was south of Macon, racing toward the northeast at 60 mph.

Other tornadoes were reported near Huber, Georgia and south of Hamilton, Georgia. Some of the tornado warnings had "particularly dangerous situation" wording attached to them, which means these aren't weak, mildly damaging tornadoes, but ones that could be devastating if they roared through a town or neighborhood.

At 4:15 p.m. today I counted no fewer than 12 simultaneous tornado warnings in central and southern Georgia, so that's a very dense packet of tornadic storms. Which means it's a dangerous situation for sure.

A person named Evan on Twitter posted this photo
inside his home this afternoon, with the message, "I need
prayers. Tornado just destroyed my house. 

As of 6:30 p.m. there are 18 confirmed tornadoes in Alabama and Georgia. I'm sure many other reports will come in, as this is an ongoing situation. Plus, it sometimes takes as much as 24 hours to confirm a storm in any one location was a tornado or something else, like ferocious straight line winds.

National Weather Service offices in Georgia are so overwhelmed with trying to issue timely warnings that the NWS office down in Key West, Florida, is assisting with warnings up in Georgia. (There's no severe weather around Key West.)

Video on social media showed a very wide, wedge-shaped tornado moving through Smiths Station, Alabama.

Other photos on social media showed houses leveled in Talbotton, Georgia by a tornado. There's no word yet on casualties in that town.

This is a developing story, so hit this post from time to time, as there will very likely be updates.

Extreme destruction in this video from Lee County, Alabama. As you'll see, houses are leveled.
You can also tell by the narrator's voice that he is stunned and overwhelmed. No surprise there:


Video: Tornado near Warner Robbins, Georgia this afternoon.