Tornado confirmed as cleanup begins for Northeast Alabama

HENAGAR, Ala. — Authorities in Northeast Alabama say damage is widespread, but the severity remains unknown as National Weather Service survey teams and local officials across the tri-state region begin assessing the destruction left by a line of storms that brought tornadoes, high winds and rain to the Chattanooga region.

One death was confirmed in Middle Tennessee and another in Northeast Tennessee while a line of heavy storms in North Alabama pummeled Scottsboro and Henagar, a small town that might have gotten a double dose of tornadoes just before midnight, forecasters at the weather service office in Huntsville said.

The storms plowed along one after another just south of the Tennessee-Alabama border, and as Thursday morning arrived, so did another line of storms that hampered recovery and assessment efforts.

DARK FUNNELS

“The team’s still out there in the Henagar area and eastern and central DeKalb County, and they’re still looking at some of the damage out there, but we can confirm at least an EF2 tornado around the Henagar area,” Todd Barron, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Huntsville, said in a phone interview.

An EF2 tornado has wind speeds between 113 mph and 135 mph.

While weather radar Wednesday night appeared to show two similar tornadic storms tracing the same path across Jackson and DeKalb counties, Barron said there has been no confirmation of two twisters yet.

“It looks like it potentially crossed the Jackson County side of Henagar,” Barron said. “We have not been over to the Jackson County side yet. We probably won’t get over there till tomorrow.”

Barron said it’s possible there wasn’t as much damage as feared in the Scottsboro area.

“We had two big supercells move their way from Athens (Alabama) through Huntsville all the way to Henagar,” meteorologist Geoff Heidelberger, at the weather service office in Huntsville, said in a phone interview at daybreak Thursday before the team arrived in Henagar.

The Emergency Management Agency office in DeKalb County reported widespread damage and no deaths, but there were injuries.

“We have about 20 homes that have been impacted in some manner or fashion,” Michael Posey, the EMA director in DeKalb, said by phone.

Posey said drones would help find damage not yet reported or seen overnight.

“We had a couple of injured residents that did have to be transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and several others had bumps, scrapes and bruises,” Posey said.

Road crews across the region were working to clear away trees and debris, he said.

(READ MORE: Tornadoes tear through southeastern US as storms leave 3 dead)

VOLUNTEER TEAM

Volunteers with supplies and hands ready to work were being coordinated at the Henagar Volunteer Fire Department’s station early Thursday afternoon.

Fort Payne-based Marked for Life Ministries works hand-in-hand with the DeKalb County Emergency Management Agency, volunteer Brian Cain said at the fire station. He said about 30 volunteers were dispatched around the area, clearing trees and cleaning up storm damage.

“We handle all the volunteer coordination, we handle food distribution, we handle donations that come in, and the disbursement of donations back out,” he said. “Because it’s easier for a nonprofit to handle all that because EMA is obviously super busy.”

The volunteers caught each other up on what the storm damaged, including one mobile home crushed by a falling tree. Cain said several community members were trapped at their homes due to falling trees, but crews were working steadily to clear the roads.

Charity Crowe was dropping off cases of bottled water and ice at the fire station.

Crowe said when her house in Valley Head, Alabama, caught fire a few years ago, the Henagar Fire Department was the first to respond even though the fire station was more than 10 miles away. When tragedy strikes, she said, neighboring communities show up to help each other.

“We’re all about community support,” Crow said. “And it takes a village, you know.”

In Jackson County, the same two storms that ripped through Henagar first struck Scottsboro, according to Patrick Gifford, the Community Emergency Response Team coordinator for the county emergency management agency. But officials were struggling to get to areas of damage to confirm what happened, he said.

“We had nine tornado warnings before 6 a.m. this morning,” Gifford said Thursday. “At least two hit Scottsboro and Henagar. Scottsboro had light to moderate structural damage, but nothing real heavy.”

Gifford said local folks should avoid some areas that haven’t been cleared.

“Avoid Alabama Highway 40 from Alabama Highway 71 to Alabama Highway 75,” Gifford said. “It’s been barricaded and closed by the state.”

AFTERMATH

One local resident was shocked by what daylight revealed in Scottsboro.

In a phone call, Jennifer Bain Petty described some of the damage she saw Thursday morning driving through Scottsboro.

“My workplace is on Willow Street in Scottsboro, and that’s where the tornado damage was the worst,” she said of the street that runs through downtown Scottsboro.

At first she couldn’t reach her parents by phone but they called her as she drove around town. She said she grew up in and has family in Henagar, about 20 miles east of Scottsboro, and was unable to reach some mid-morning Thursday.

In Scottsboro, Petty said she saw several trees down by the Scottsboro-Jackson Heritage Center and several people near Unclaimed Baggage store working to clean up storm debris. On a closer look, she said part of the roof of Unclaimed Baggage was badly damaged and missing in places.

“Green’s Building Supply was definitely the worst that I saw, it was just a mess,” Petty said. “A mangled mess of metal and tree limbs. It’s hard to describe. It was pretty bad.”

Dump trucks also were driving around town, she said, gathering debris with their mechanical claws.

Another sad loss, she said, was one of the oldest trees in Cedar Hills Cemetery, a historic cemetery on the west side of town. She said the tree was split during last night’s storm.

(READ MORE: Storms battering the Midwest bring tornadoes, hail and strong winds)

In Chattanooga, storms down trees and powerlines across EPB’s grid extending through the night and into Thursday morning.

EPB’s outage map showed more than 7,000 customers still affected Thursday afternoon.

EPB spokesperson Sophie Moore warned residents not to touch downed or damaged power lines and asked that people report them to EPB immediately at 423-648-1372.

In Dalton, several roads and facilities were closed after the storms, but there were no reports of injuries, according to spokesperson Bruce Frazier.

Meteorologists predict clear skies over the next few days while storm victims clean up the mess. Weather service forecasters are calling for lots of sun through Sunday with a chance of rain returning Monday.

Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.

Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.