1 of 2 | A winter time storm ravaged downtown Athens, Alabama early Sunday, tearing the roof off the Limestone County Courthouse. Photo courtesy of City of Athens Facebook.
Dec. 29 (UPI) — Two people were killed and six others injured as a vicious wintertime storm barreled across Texas and Mississippi before it blew the roof off an Alabama courthouse early Sunday and caused “significant damage” downtown.
“The roof has been blown off of the courthouse and this could have been caused by an extremely brief tornado,” Chelsea Aaron, a meteorologist with WAFF-TV, posted on social media with pictures of the damaged Limestone County Courthouse in Athens.
The rogue storm, which tore through Alabama Saturday night into Sunday, was extremely rare for December.
The square was littered with downed Christmas decorations, limbs and bricks, the City of Athens reported. Areas around the courthouse remained closed early Sunday morning as crews began cleaning up, local media reported.
“The Downtown Athens area and the Alabama Veterans Museum experienced significant wind damage last night,” State Rep. Andy Whitt posted on X.
“Tree and power line damage were also reported in Madison and Limestone County. We’re incredibly thankful there were no injuries reported. A big thank you to our EMS and public works teams for their hard work and quick response. Your dedication means everything! It was a long night for many.”
Meteorologists will determine whether the storm was an actual tornado, the National Weather Service said Sunday, Athens officials said on Facebook.
Just after the storm hit, 2,500 homes in the Athens area were without power but that number had been cut to 750 by 8 a.m. Sunday morning, Limestone County EMA reported.
One person died in the Liverpool area, located south of Houston, and four people suffered injuries, which were all attributed to the storm. Another person died and several were injured in Alabama.
Forecasters said at least six tornadoes touched down in the Houston area, and officials may discover there were more when crews go out to survey the damage. There was also damage from straight-line winds, known as “derechos.”
Mobile homes were damaged or destroyed in the North Houston suburbs of Katy and Porter Heights, where the doors of a fire station were blown in, the weather service said.
The storm knocked out power to as many as 93,000 utility customers in Mississippi on Saturday, said Malary White, chief communications officer for the state’s emergency management agency.
The vicious weather also caused departure delays of over an hour on Saturday afternoon at Houston’s two main airports, Bush Intercontinental and Hobby, according to the website FlightAware.