The National Weather Service in Birmingham will be in Cherokee County today (Wednesday, March 21st) surveying the local damage from Monday’s storm to determine if it was caused by a tornado.

Damage was widespread from the severe storms large hail and tornadoes that swept across Alabama Monday and at least nine tornado touchdowns have been confirmed as of Tuesday including an EF-3 that caused significant damage in Jacksonville.  The National Weather Service offices in both Huntsville and Birmingham sent out multiple storm survey teams on Tuesday to look at the damage and determine if tornadoes caused it and how strong those tornadoes were.

After initially giving the Jacksonville storm a preliminary rating of EF-2 earlier Tuesday, the weather service in Birmingham upgraded it to an EF-3 with winds of around 140 mph.  The weather service said the upgrade was based on structural damage around Jacksonville State University.  It is the first EF-3 tornado to hit Alabama since November 30th of 2016. 

Etowah County officials stated that the storm that came through parts of Rainbow City and Southside damaged more than 130 homes, but with only one person hospitalized.  In the Riddles Bend area of Rainbow City, police said more than 50 homes were damaged, with 16 suffering major damage and five being destroyed.  In Southside, Mayor Wally Burns said more than 80 homes were damaged, but did not know just how many were considered damaged beyond repair