Feb. 18—Morgan County Emergency Management Agency Director Jonathan Warner was in Tuscumbia on Monday, assisting Colbert County EMA and other agencies in assessing the extensive storm damage caused by an EF-1 tornado Saturday night, but he said Morgan County sustained only minimal damage from the storm.
Warner said there was no structural damage reported in Morgan County but said there were several trees down and power outages. He said there were no injuries reported to the Morgan County EMA.
“We just saw the normal stuff that you would see coming out of storms like that,” Warner said. “Across the county, they were not centrally localized. That would tell us if we had a specific event or maybe straight-line winds or a small tornado touched down, and we did not see that. It was scattered from one end of the county to the other.”
According to the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, there were downed trees reported on U.S. 31 in the Flint area and the area of Alabama 67 and Ryan Loop Road was blocked by power lines. Downed trees and power lines were also reported on Cain Road in Somerville, College Street in Hartselle, the intersection of Ghost Hill Road and South Seneca Drive in Trinity, Modaus Road Southwest in Decatur, East Moulton Street in Decatur, Vestavia Drive Southwest in Decatur, and Nat Key Road near Falkville.
Decatur Utilities spokesman Joe Holmes said there were three large substation breaker outages which resulted in a total of 1,683 customers losing power. The substations on Eighth Street and 13th Street went out late Saturday night, and the Coliseum substation went out Sunday morning.
“All outages were related to trees/limbs getting into lines, wind or lightning,” Holmes said. “One street light pole was broken. We did not have any distribution or transmission poles broken.”
Joe Wheeler EMC reported several fiber outages in its coverage area on Sunday, which caused service disruptions for customers of its fiber internet subsidiary, FlashFiber. JWEMC spokesman Michael Cornelison said there were 2,215 power outages in their coverage areas of Morgan and Lawrence counties.
“There were poles broken, including a steel pole on (Alabama) 101,” Cornelison said. “Not sure how many poles total. Fiber is hard to tell because if the power is out, so is the fiber. All fiber was restored about the same time as power.”
Meteorologist Huntir Cramer with the National Weather Service in Huntsville said there was wind damage from the thunderstorm reported near Town Creek and wind damage in Elkmont. Downed trees were reported near Ardmore and the Fort Hampton area.
“We had several thunderstorm wind gusts measured that we did a local storm report on and our (storm equipment) measured wind gusts of 61 miles per hour, 4 miles northwest of Mooresville,” Cramer said.
Limestone and Lawrence County EMAs could not immediately be reached.
Tuscumbia was not as fortunate as Morgan County.
The weather service reported that an EF-1 tornado touched down in Tuscumbia around 11:12 p.m. Saturday with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph.
The tornado traveled northeast just over 2 miles and was 215 yards wide.
The tornado touched down near Lamar Road at Frankfort Road, according to the NWS report. It caused “immediate and widespread damage” in neighborhoods southwest of downtown Tuscumbia.
As the tornado tracked into downtown, power lines and traffic signals were destroyed, according to the report.
The tornado lifted east of Commons Street before reaching Kings Avenue, according to the report, and then touched down around 11:20 p.m. just south of Russellville Road. It eventually lifted off near Littleville.
“There was a roof blown off the cafeteria of an elementary school and right now we’re (looking) at a tree that went through a house,” Warner said. “I would think the house is going to have to be completely demolished. We’ve been seeing businesses and then the downtown area of Tuscumbia got hit pretty hard.”
Warner said several roofs were blown off multiple businesses and residences in Tuscumbia and a steeple was blown off a church. He and three other full-time workers with Morgan County EMA arrived in Tuscumbia early Monday morning and said their next destination will be Muscle Shoals.
“I would think this is going to turn into more than just today,” Warner said. “Morgan County will assist as long as Colbert County requests assistance.”
Holmes said Decatur Utilities has also sent a crew to Tuscumbia. He said they will be working there Tuesday as well.
Warner said most EMAs in north Alabama are part of the North Alabama Mutual Aid Association, which assists other counties in the event of severe storm damage. He said when an EF-2 tornado touched down in Hartselle in March 2023, six counties came to Morgan County’s assistance.
The tornado in Hartselle left one man dead, damaged dozens of homes, brought down power lines and shut down roads. There was also widespread damage reported in Danville and Lacey’s Spring during that tornado.
“One county sends out a message and says, ‘Hey, we need some help,’ and other counties join in,” Warner said. “Jefferson County is here (in Tuscumbia), Marshall County is here, so there are multiple other counties that come and help out.”
Another tornado touched down Saturday night in the Waco community, which is just east of Russellville. The NWS said the tornado was an EF-2 with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph. The tornado tracked northeast for just shy of 4 miles and was 170 yards wide.
One person was injured in the community from storm debris, according to Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver.
The NWS said an EF-1 tornado landed in Marshall County along Mount Hebron Road at 1 a.m. Sunday with peak winds of 100 mph. It traveled 0.76 of a mile and was 30 yards wide.
— [email protected] or 256-340-2442. Kevin Taylor contributed to this report.
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