Monday, three of Alabama’s top elected officials toured the damage caused by the tornadoes that ravaged Alabama on March 25.
Governor Kay Ivey conducted a tour with three stops. She visited Calhoun, Hale and Shelby Counties, three of Alabama’s hardest-hit areas.
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-Saks) jointly examined the damage in Calhoun County, the location of all five of Alabama’s tornado-caused deaths.
“Every Alabamian grieves for these families and their losses. Our hearts and prayers go out to these families who lost loved ones,” said Ivey during her Calhoun County stop Monday.
“Alabama is no stranger to the wrath of Mother Nature. It comes all too frequently,” the governor remarked. “While our state took a punch, a bad punch, and mourns those lost, this is the time when Alabamians show what we’re made of.”
Tuberville and Rogers were accompanied by members of the Oxford Police Department, including Chief Bill Patridge during their visit to the damaged locations.
The two members of Congress visited with their constituents at a community center in Ohatchee, the small town in Northwest Calhoun County where four of the citizens who died from the tornadoes lived. The fifth lived in the nearby community of Wellington.
“As Alabamians recover, my office stands ready to help,” noted Tuberville on Monday.
Rogers, who represents a large swath of East Alabama, echoed Tuberville’s readiness to help.
Surveys of Thursday’s storms are still being conducted by the National Weather Service (NWS). To date, ten tornadoes have been confirmed. One in the Black Belt was on the ground for more than 80 miles and another in Shelby County had wind speeds that touched 140 mph.
It was an EF-2 storm with winds around 130 mph that claimed the lives of the five Alabamians in Calhoun County.
The United Way of East Central Alabama has established a disaster fund to aid those in Calhoun and Randolph Counties impacted by the March 25 storms.
Similarly, the United Way of Central Alabama has a disaster fund for the other areas in the state that were most impacted, including Shelby County and numerous locations in the Black Belt.
“We are a state where neighbors help neighbors,” Ivey observed on Monday.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.
