Tornadoes ripped a billboard from its original display spot in Lee County, Alabama near U.S. Route 280. It landed in a yard located some 20 miles away in Harris County, Georgia. The billboard is an advertisement for the Lee County Flea Market. A Facebook account belonging to the flea market posted a message on Monday, saying: ‘Our sign on the billboard located at Buckwild Saloon landed intact in Hamilton, Georgia in a friend’s yard.’ At least 23 people were killed by the tornadoes.
Alabama tornado that killed at least 23 was so powerful it ripped a huge billboard from its display and carried it 20 MILES across the state line into GEORGIA
- Lee County Flea Market billboard was sent flying 20 miles from Lee County, Alabama to Harris County, Georgia
- It landed nearly intact in the yard of a home in Hamilton, Georgia
- Tornadoes ripped through Lee County, Alabama on Sunday, resulting in at least 23 people killed
A tornado which tore through parts of Alabama, killing at least 23 people, was so powerful it ripped a billboard from its display and carried it 20 miles into a different state.
The billboard, which initially stood atop a pole just north of Smiths Station, Alabama, was torn from its spot and sent airborne.
The huge sign was then carried 20 miles from U.S. Route 280, landing in Harris County, Georgia.
The billboard is an advertisement for the Lee County Flea Market.
The image above shows a billboard that was ripped from its pole in Lee County, Alabama on Sunday and sent airborne some 20 miles until it landed in a yard in Harris County, Georgia
The billboard is an advertisement for a local flea market in Lee County, Alabama
A Facebook account belonging to the flea market posted a message on Monday, saying: ‘Our sign on the billboard located at Buckwild Saloon landed intact in Hamilton, Georgia in a friend’s yard.’ The billboard is seen above before the tornado hit on Sunday
The map above shows the distance between Smiths Station, Alabama and Hamilton, Georgia
A Facebook account belonging to the flea market posted a message on Monday, saying: ‘Our sign on the billboard located at Buckwild Saloon landed intact in Hamilton, Georgia in a friend’s yard.’
The friend wrote on Facebook that they were amazed how a sign that size could travel that distance with only minimal damage caused.
Lee County is recovering from the damage caused by tornadoes over the weekend.
Residents and rescue teams on Monday sifted through the splintered remnants of homes torn apart by a string of tornadoes that killed at least 23 people, including three children, in the deadliest burst of twisters to hit the U.S. since 2013.
The tornadoes, spawned by a late-winter ‘supercell’ thunderstorm, ripped through Lee County on Sunday with cyclonic winds of up to 170 miles per hour, at step four of the six-step Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale of tornado strength.
Mobile homes were tossed on their sides and ripped open, their contents strewn over a ravaged landscape littered with debris and gnarled, uprooted trees.
In some places, shreds of houses hung from the limbs of the few trees left standing.
‘It looks almost as if someone took a giant knife and just scraped the ground. There are slabs where homes formerly stood, debris everywhere, trees are snapped,’ Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told a morning news conference.
At least three twisters struck the area, in eastern Alabama near the Georgia border, within a few hours on Sunday afternoon.
The worst of the damage and all of the known fatalities occurred in and around the tiny community of Beauregard, about 10 miles southeast of Auburn, said Chris Darden, chief meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Birmingham……more here