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Strong storms in the Southeast spawned tornadoes that touched down in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday, damaging or destroying dozens of homes and at least one church, as well as a prison. No fatalities or major injuries were reported.
The worst damage occurred Tuesday in Sapps, Ala., a small community near the Mississippi border approximately 40 miles west of Tuscaloosa.
AL.com reported that dozens of homes were reduced to rubble and at least one mobile home was cracked in half after it was apparently picked up, carried and dropped by high winds.
"I was in the bed asleep at the time and it woke me up. It sounded like a train," Anthony Walker told AL.com. "It's the first time in about 25 years a tornado hit here."
The National Weather Service in Birmingham confirmed that a "large and destructive tornado" touched down near the city of Aliceville, about 45 miles west of Tuscaloosa, early Tuesday evening.
Aliceville Police Chief Tony Jones told AL.com that he only knew of two minor injuries in Sapps. "The No. 1 thing is this community itself," Jones said. "Neighbors were getting neighbors out of homes and to the shelter."
Aliceville is also home to a federal prison that was in the path of the tornado. A Pickens County sheriff's deputy barred reporters from going beyond the front gate of the facility Tuesday evening.
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