Twister rips apart several buildings in Alabama
BILOXI, Miss. -- Forecasters downgraded the status of Tropical Storm Cindy to a tropical depression on Thursday, but it's still dangerous. The storm rumbled across the Deep South, bringing heavy rain, damaging winds and at least one tornado.
In Fairfield, Alabama, the sirens sounded as the tornado, which was captured on a cellphone, touched down just seven miles from downtown Birmingham.
The twister ripped apart several buildings. But it left bottles untouched sitting on a storeroom shelf.
The powerful winds tossed a truck right through a chain-link fence.
Emergency crews report several people were injured, but no one was killed.
The tornado was likely spawned from the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy. That storm system has dumped several inches of rain from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. In southwest Louisiana, creeks and bayous flooded many low-lying neighborhoods. Some areas on the Gulf Coast got up to 10 inches of rain, forcing drivers to abandon their cars.
"I was gonna drive through it, but it was a little too deep to go in there with the car," Lakeview resident Rick Owens said.
Mississippians along the coast performed a well-rehearsed routine: neighbors checking on neighbors.
Larry Jones took us by boat, down what is his driveway, to show us the area that's flooded dozens of times in the 49 years he's lived here.
"Yessir," Jones said. "Wouldn't trade it for nothing though."
The Biloxi River has risen 13 feet because of Tropical Storm Cindy. The water has over-topped the banks of the river and has flooded areas that are at least a quarter-mile from the Biloxi River. The good news is the river is cresting. Water will only go down from here.