Alabama Environment & Hazard Risk

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in far southern Lee County and determined that it was consistent with an EF4 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 170 mph.||This track is a continuation of a track that began in Macon County. The tornado crossed into Lee County near Lee Road 812 and tracked northeast to County Road 29 where it removed the roof and collapsed several cinder block walls of a church. The tornado continued to intensify as it approached County Road 11, where it peeled sheet metal off of the porch of a home and ripped some sheet metal off of two outdoor storage sheds and continued to uproot numerous pine trees. Debris from structures and their contents were strewn along a tree line to the east of their original location and some evidence of weak ground rowing was observed along the surface tornado path.||The tornado reached its peak intensity just south of the intersection of Lee County Road 36 and Lee County Road 39, where it rolled a manufactured home and emptied its contents nearby on the northern side of the track. Additional damage toward the southern portion of the track included the complete destruction of a house with all debris...

Hurricane Sally made landfall in Gulf Shores, AL at 5am on Wednesday, September 16th as a strong Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. Sally produced widespread wind, storm surge, and freshwater flooding across coastal AL and the western Florida Panhandle. Flood and wind damage also extended well inland into inland southwest Alabama and south central Alabama. Sally was an extremely slow moving hurricane, which prolonged and exacerbated the local impacts. The storm was moving at less than 5 mph at the time of landfall, resulting in a long duration of tropical storm and hurricane force winds, storm surge, and torrential rainfall. ||Storm surge and resultant damage was widespread and significant from Baldwin County eastward to Okaloosa County. The highest surge occurred in the bays and sounds of Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, with generally lower values and lesser impacts on the immediate Gulf facing shores. A peak inundation of 7 to 9 feet above ground level was officially surveyed across some locations in the back bays and sounds of southeast Baldwin County, as well as the northern end of Escambia and Blackwater Bays. A larger area was...

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northern Autauga County and determined that it was consistent with an EF3 tornado, with maximum winds near 150 mph. This long-track tornado began west of Highway 82, where timber damage occurred to farms near the community of Independence. The tornado crossed Highway 82 and strengthened as a manufactured home was rolled along Autauga County Road 40. Over the next two miles, the tornado rapidly strengthened as it approached the Old Kingston community, where EF3 damage began along County Road 43. At this location, at least three manufactured homes were obliterated with their frames thrown up to 100 yards. A pickup truck was sent airborne and landed 120 yards to the northeast, where a shallow crater was formed by its impact. The tornado became deadly as it impacted several homes along Sandy Ridge Road. The frame of a manufactured home at the western end of the road was thrown 250 yards to the north-northeast and came to rest in a field. Just downstream, several manufactured homes in a cluster were shredded and thrown considerable distances. Trees were snapped off relatively close to the ground and partially debarked. In...

Hurricane Sally made landfall in Gulf Shores, AL at 5am on Wednesday, September 16th as a strong Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. Sally produced widespread wind, storm surge, and freshwater flooding across coastal AL and the western Florida Panhandle. Flood and wind damage also extended well inland into inland southwest Alabama and south central Alabama. Sally was an extremely slow moving hurricane, which prolonged and exacerbated the local impacts. The storm was moving at less than 5 mph at the time of landfall, resulting in a long duration of tropical storm and hurricane force winds, storm surge, and torrential rainfall. ||Storm surge and resultant damage was widespread and significant from Baldwin County eastward to Okaloosa County. The highest surge occurred in the bays and sounds of Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, with generally lower values and lesser impacts on the immediate Gulf facing shores. A peak inundation of 7 to 9 feet above ground level was officially surveyed across some locations in the back bays and sounds of southeast Baldwin County, as well as the northern end of Escambia and Blackwater Bays. A larger area was...

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Calhoun County and determined that it was consistent with an EF3 tornado, with maximum winds near 140 mph.||The tornado first touched down on Boiling Springs Road snapping and uprooting trees just north of Mitchellville Road. The tornado widened as it traveled northeast damaging structures along Boiling Springs Road, downing trees and power lines. A double wide mobile home was demolished on Simpson Bend Road. The tornado then produced extensive damage in the Macon community, destroying numerous mobile homes with moderate to major damage to several site built homes. In this area, tree damage was also extensive with numerous hardwoods snapped near the base along Ragan Chapel Road. As the tornado approached Highway 77, it reached its maximum intensity and was likely multi-vortex in nature based on the damage pattern. Here, a large swath of trees were snapped. A large factory, Precision Materials, sustained major damage. The entire structure and supporting frame of this large well built metal building was collapsed and bent inward. The owner said they received the tornado warning and moved all employees into a safe shelter...

An NWS Survey Team determined that some damage in the Rehobeth area was caused by strong straight line winds on the southern flank of a tornado just to the north. Damage consisted of numerous large trees snapped or uprooted. One mobile home was split by a large tree, resulting in four fatalities. The damage pattern along this path was not convergent and was noticeably south of the path of the tornado vortex. Damage cost was estimated.