“Words cannot explain what I saw,” Smith said of the accident site, which he visited Saturday.
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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.
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Monday morning, Claudette had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
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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.