EF-3 tornado struck Corner, southwest Blount County

The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado struck Corner and the southwest edge of Blount County on Saturday night.

An NWS survey team reported Sunday that the tornado began in the city of Parrish in Walker County, and continued through Cordova, and Corner. Major damage to buildings was reported in Parrish and Cordova, while Corner and Blount County mainly suffered uprooted or broken trees, with at least one travel trailer overturned and some other minor structural damage. Arkadelphia Road near Skyline Road was blocked for a time Saturday night by fallen trees and debris.

The tornado was rated as an EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with estimated peak wind speed of 140 miles per hour. The tornado traveled almost 30 miles, and the damage path was up to 400 yards wide. Another tornado developed from the same storm cell, touching down in eastern Blount County four miles from Brooksville and moving into Marshall County. Three structures were damaged.

The tornado was one of the last of a day-long outbreak that spawned numerous long-path tornadoes, including an EF-4 twister that began in eastern Louisiana and continued through central Mississippi for more than 100 miles. That tornado, which had a damage-path width of as much as 1.75 miles, resulted in the deaths of 10 people in and around Yazoo City.

Other tornadoes in Alabama struck parts of rural Cullman County near Welti, in Marion County near Gu-Win, in Albertville and Geraldine in Marshall County, and two tornadoes in DeKalb County.

No fatalities were reported directly resulting from any of the Alabama tornadoes. One woman died in Walker County when she slipped and fell going to a storm shelter.

Severe thunderstorms and flooding were widespread, with considerable street flooding in Fairfield and Tarrant.

NWS teams will continue damage surveys on Monday.

We’ll have more at njeffersonnews.com as developments continue.