MOBILE, Ala. (AP) – A possible tornado flattened a downtown store before dawn and ripped the front off a metal building across Mobile Bay on Friday, and forecasters said more storms could hit an area stretching from south Alabama to coastal Virginia.
Violent winds ripped open a Family Dollar store in a heavily populated neighborhood in Mobile and damaged an adjacent grocery store, Greer’s CashSaver, before dawn, around the time tornado warnings covered the area, news outlets reported.
The grocery wasn’t open when the storm hit and workers managed to get the damage cleaned up and open just a few hours later than normal, said manager Marcus Canfield.
“Just a few ceiling tiles and a few front windows were knocked out,” he said. “It’s not too bad. It could have been a lot worse.”
Another building was badly damaged to the east across the bay in Daphne, where trees were splintered. No serious injuries were reported in Alabama, and the Storm Prediction Center said a tornado may have caused the damage in Mobile.