Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 28, 1994 TAG: 9403280122
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PIEDMONT, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
The tornado hit Goshen Methodist Church about 11:30 a.m., toppling a brick wall on a pew of children in Easter outfits waiting to sing in a pageant.
At least 90 people were injured, authorities in this northeastern Alabama town said. Six children, ages 2 to 12, were among the dead.
Worshipers said they heard wind, then the lights went out.
"At that minute, things started hitting the side of the church, and something came through one of the windows," said Carol Scroggins, who was at the altar leading the Easter program. "I just started to scream, `Everybody get down!' . . . People were screaming, but it happened so quickly there wasn't much time for reaction."
The tornado ripped away an entire side of the building and blew the steeple into the parking lot.
"One man ran down the aisle yelling `Get on the floor!' " said Elwanna Acker, 63. "Then the roof came down. The woman right next to me died."
"People were praying," she said. "People were worrying about their grandchildren."
A nursery filled with children in a church wing did not collapse.
Sixteen bodies were found inside the church, and one man was found outside in a van, apparently killed by part of a toppled telephone pole, Cherokee County sheriff's deputies said. An 18th victim died while being driven to a hospital, and a 19th died at a hospital.
About six miles away, the Union Grove Methodist church was demolished by a tornado during services, but its 75 worshipers took shelter in the basement and escaped injury, said Piedmont Mayor Vera Stewart.
Another wave of violent storms pounded the region Sunday evening.
A tornado also heavily damaged the Ten Island Baptist Church, about 30 miles west of Piedmont, and injured an undetermined number of people, Calhoun County sheriff's dispatcher Leon Hill said.
The tornadoes were part of an intense spring storm system that began with moist, unstable air off the Gulf of Mexico early Sunday. The air was pushed northeast by the jet stream and clashed with low pressure along a cold front.
Ffteen people were killed in Georgia. Elsewhere in Alabama, tornadoes killed one person at a park and another in his car. In eastern Tennessee, a hiker in the Great Smoky Mountains drowned in a rain-swollen creek during an afternoon deluge.
In Charlotte, N.C., a man standing in front of his home was killed by lightning, said police spokeswoman Kim Buchanan.
by CNB