The crash also claimed the lives of two other people who were in a separate vehicle. Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock said vehicles likely hydroplaned. The vehicle erupted in flames in the wreck along a wet Interstate 65 about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Montgomery. The children who died Saturday were in a van for a youth home for abused or neglected children. Mother Nature is going to do what she’s going to do, so you just prepare.ATLANTA (AP) - Claudette regained tropical storm status Monday 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. “You keep your eye on the weather and you prepare as much stuff in advance as you can,” she said. Meanwhile, it seemed to be business as usual along North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Sunday ahead of Claudette’s arrival.Īt Stack ‘em High in Kill Devil Hills, a restaurant that specializes in pancakes, co-owner Dawn Kiousis said Sunday morning restaurant service was busy. The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted that it was sending 10 investigators to the area Sunday to investigate the crash. Traffic on that stretch of I-65 is usually filled with vacationers driving to and from Gulf of Mexico beaches on summer weekends. Garlock, the coroner, said the location of the wreck is “notorious” for hydroplaning, as the northbound highway curves down a hill to a small creek. Four others were ranch residents and two were guests, Smith said. Two of the dead in the van were Gulley’s children, ages 4 and 16. Gulley remained hospitalized Sunday in Montgomery in serious but stable condition. He had returned from Gulf Shores in a separate van and did not see the crash when it happened. “Words cannot explain what I saw,” Smith said of the accident site, which he visited Saturday. Candice Gulley, the ranch director, was the van’s only survivor - pulled from the flames by a bystander.
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.
The van in Saturday’s crash was carrying children ages 4 to 17 who belonged to the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch, a youth home operated by the Alabama Sheriffs Association. A tornado was possible in the early morning hours along the Outer Banks, forecasters said. An earlier tropical storm watch was discontinued.Ībout 1 to 2 inches (3 to 5 centimeters) of rain was expected for the Carolinas before the storm moved out to sea. The storm was expected to move into the Atlantic Ocean later in the morning, then travel near or south of Nova Scotia on Tuesday.Ī tropical storm warning was in effect from Cape Fear, North Carolina, to the town of Duck on the Outer Banks. The storm was located 65 miles (100 kilometers) east-southeast of Raleigh, North Carolina, and moving east-northeast at 25 mph (41 kph), forecasters said. Monday morning, Claudette had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. Crews were using boats to search Pebble Creek. A search was also underway for one man believed to have fallen into the water during flash flooding in Birmingham, WBRC-TV reported.
0 kommentar(er)
