City, county escape wrath of storms
Published 12:00 am Saturday, November 18, 2006
A series of heavy thunderstorms that wreaked havoc across Montgomery and other parts of central Alabama left Greenville and Butler County largely unscathed on Wednesday afternoon.
Butler County EMA Bob Luman said heavy wind did down a few trees near Highway 106 in Georgiana, but that was basically all that was reported to his office.
“We're lucky,” he said.
Greenville Mayor Dexter McLendon agreed. While this year's hurricane season has been unusually quiet, Wednesday's powerful band of showers coupled with tornados reminded many of how quickly Mother Nature could turn mean.
“We had no damage and no power outages,” said McLendon.
All weren't so lucky in Butler County, however. Mrs. David Crenshaw, Sr. reported that the windows of her home on Ridge Rd. were “blown out” by wind and rain early Wednesday morning. There were also some damaged trees in the area, she said.
“But nobody was hurt, so that's the important thing,” she said.
The National Weather Service confirmed on Thursday that it was a pair of tornadoes that ripped through Montgomery and the community of Pintlala on Wednesday causing massive amounts of damage. The Montgomery tornado destroyed an apartment complex and caused significant damage to a post office on Winton Blount Blvd.
The preschool Fun Zone in Montgomery was leveled by the tornado, causing some tense moments on Wednesday in the storm's aftermath as officials sought to determine whether or not the children inside had made it to safety.
Employees and nearby onlookers were able to get the children
away soon after the building's collapse.
Wind also brought down a water tower in the tiny community of Hamilton Crossroads, just south of Brundidge in Pike County.