Baldwin Woman's Family Injured In Alabama Tornado
By Brenda Waters
BALDWIN (KDKA) -- Nearly 270 people are now confirmed dead in the worst tornado outbreak in the U.S. since 1974.
More than 150 tornadoes tore through Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.
Angela Smith, a woman in Baldwin, sits in her living room glued to the TV. She has family in Alabama, one of the states hardest hit by tornadoes.
Most of her family, including her mother, father and brother live in the small town of Hackleburg. Smith says the only thing still standing is the only church in the town.
Her brother, the assistant pastor at that church, was injured when high winds flipped over his pickup truck.
Smith says the scariest moment was when her mother called to say, "We are fine. We're trying to..." and then the phone went dead.
Hackleburg is only 15 square miles with a population of just more than 1,500. Smith says it is a place where everyone knows each other.
Smith says at one point her mother broke down when she realized she was holding two babies from two different families and both were covered in blood.
Smith says some of her family members are hurt, but they are alive and for that she is grateful.
Right now authorities are not allowing anyone back inside the small town, but as soon as she gets the OK, Smith says she is on her way there.
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