Weekend tornadoes that carved a path of injury and destruction from Alabama to the hills of Northwest Georgia followed a well-worn path.
Strong twisters have pummeled Northeast Alabama hard over the last two decades. Since 1990, nearly 100 funnels have touched down in the six Alabama counties closest to Chattanooga, according to data from the National Climatic Data Center.
The storms have caused nearly $40 million in damage, injured more than 150 people and claimed four lives. In the same period, the eight counties of Northwest Georgia saw 22 funnels and Eastern Tennessee saw 50 tornadoes over a much larger 11-county area, records show.
“It seems like we certainly get our fair share and then some,” said Michael Leath, director of the DeKalb County, Ala., Emergency Management Agency. Over the years, the storms have injured nearly 70 people in DeKalb County alone and caused $7.5 million in property damage there.