Recovery efforts continue after EF-2 tornado in Lauderdale County

FLORENCE, Ala. (WAFF) - Lauderdale County residents are continuing to pick up the damage left behind by an EF-2 tornado late Friday night. Though the tornado was on the ground for only two minutes, it left a mess that residents said will take days to clean up.

The powerful storm took trees out of their roots, the roofs of off homes and knocked several powerlines down.

Volunteers like Forrest Wright are in the thick of it, trying to clean up the community.

“There’s enough work here for everybody, so we’re all trying to work together to help these people out,” he said.

Wright said this is a time for the community to pick itself back up.

“The community and it’s not just this place but all over, they aren’t accustomed to having t deal with this,” he said. “We can give them some comfort and guidance so there can be an end to all of this.

EMA Director George Grabryan said it took the whole weekend to add up the damage.

“We had trees on a lot of homes,” he said. “We had two traffic accidents involving trees and a water rescue. Two boats were taken off a vehicle near the Green Hill area. Those were the only injuries here, and it’s all just property damage left.”

Grabryan said cleaning up the community is the priority for the next few days.

“Agencies that are responsible for the roads are making sure those are clear,” he said. “We’ve got crews working on those. The power department is still out here working.”

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