Troy Fire Department Chief Thomas Outlaw said that so far none of the injuries appeared to be serious. It’s not clear how many people were in the Wal-Mart when the storm hit. The storm caused significant damage to the Wal-Mart roof and tore out the wall of a nearby sporting goods store that was closed, according to Troy Mayor Jason Reeves. A gas station and another store were also damaged and an 18-wheeler was overturned. One minute later, a tornado warning was issued for radar-indicated rotation; prior to 10:39 p.m., no warnings had been issued for the area.
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A Wal-Mart in Troy, Alabama, was hit by suspected tornado late on Thursday.
“I was looking for somewhere to go”, Eric Bagents, who was inside the Walmart, told the Troy Messenger.
“We’re very fortunate it happened at the night of night it did”, Reeves said. “It sounded, like everyone says, a train, but then there was a huge explosion when all the big windows exploded in the front of the store”. “We saw dust blowing through the door”. “I just got low…”
The National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama, announced on Twitter that the storm was confirmed as a tornado, however an investigation into the tornado rating was ongoing.
Laws said tornadoes are “very rare” for southeast Alabama in August.
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A late-summer tornado has destroyed the roof of a Walmart in Alabama, WALA (Mobile) is reporting.
