Strong straight-line winds and a few possible small tornadoes hit Alabama Saturday in a number of locations.
One of the hardest-hit areas appears to be Athens, in far northern Alabama, between the Tennessee River and the Tennessee state line.
The damage appeared to be greatest around the Limestone County courthouse square in downtown Athens.
Survey teams from the National Weather Service are inspecting the damage Sunday.
There are no reports of deaths or injuries in Alabama at the time of this reporting. Saturday's tornadoes killed one person in Texas and one in Mississippi. Those same storm lines continued into Alabama.
Alabama Power Company serves the southern two-thirds of Alabama. The company is reporting a peak of about 8,500 homes without power, with 4,500 still without power. The Tennessee Valley Authority serves northern Alabama, but no reports are available on outages.
PowerOutages.com reported 51,000 outages statewide in Alabama. These Alabama counties reported over 1,000 outages each:
Baldwin
Bibb
Butler
Etowah
Fayette
Jefferson
Lamar
Marion
Mobile
Montgomery
Shelby
St. Clair
Talladega
Tallapoosa
Tuscaloosa
Walker
Meteorologist James Spann of ABC 33/40 TV said Sunday, "Most likely it (the Athens damage) was caused by a brief tornado."
These photos were taken by the City of Athens:
While tornadoes can occur anytime in Alabama, the primary tornado season is March, April and the first half of May. A second tornado season is in November and December.
Jim' Zig' Zeigler writes about Alabama's people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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