8 kids killed as tropical storm Claudette hits US
Print Edition
Claudette regained tropical storm status yesterday morning as it neared the coast of the Carolinas less than two days after 13 people died — including eight children in a multi-vehicle crash — due to the effects of the storm in Alabama.
The children who died on Saturday were in a van for a youth home for abused or neglected children.
The vehicle erupted in flames in the wreck along a wet Interstate 65 about 55 kilometers south of Montgomery.
Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock said vehicles likely hydroplaned.
The crash also claimed the lives of two other people who were in a separate vehicle. Several people were injured.
A 24-year-old man and a 3-year-old boy were also killed on Saturday when a tree fell on their house just outside the Tuscaloosa city limits.
And a woman died when her car ran off the road into a swollen creek on Saturday.
A search was also underway for one man believed to have fallen into the water during flash flooding in Birmingham, WBRC-TV reported.
Yesterday morning, Claudette had maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers per hour, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
The storm was expected to move into the Atlantic Ocean later yesterday morning, then travel near or south of Nova Scotia today.
The van in Saturday’s crash was carrying children aged 4 to 17 who belonged to the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch, a youth home operated by the Alabama Sheriffs Association.
Michael Smith, the youth ranch’s CEO, said the van was heading back to the ranch near Camp Hill, northeast of Montgomery, after a week at the beach in Gulf Shores.
Candice Gulley, the ranch director, was the van’s only survivor — pulled from the flames by a bystander.
“Words cannot explain what I saw,” Smith said of the accident site, which he visited on Saturday.
He had returned from Gulf Shores in a separate van and did not see the crash happen.
Garlock, the coroner, said the location of the wreck is “notorious” for hydroplaning.
The northbound highway curves down a hill to a small creek.
The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted that it was sending 10 investigators to the area Sunday to investigate the crash.
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