1949 Twister
Submitted by Terry Jackson

The Zanesville Signal
Zanesville, OH
11-25-1949

Alabama Twister Claims 14 Lives

Birmingham, Ala. (AP) -- Thanksgiving Day tornadoes roared down at four points in east Alabama yesterday and killed 14 persons. Forty-four persons were injured.

The vicious, out-of-season storms left several other persons missing and destroyed more than a score of buildings as they leap-frogged in three counties about dusk.

An entire family of 10 Negroes was wiped out in Tallapoosa county, 60 miles southeast of Birmingham. The mammoth wind picked up their weather-beaten little home and hurled it 300 yards across the road into another house.

The second house was occupied by another large family of Negroes, but none was reported hurt. Both houses were demolished--witnesses said they appeared to explode after the smashing impact.

Near Oneonta, in Blount county, two members of a white family were killed at the Easley community. The same twister hopped a small mountain and struck again on the northern outskirts of Oneonta, where 34 persons were hurt. Property damage was heavy.

Another person was killed and five injured on Sand Mountain, near Valley Head in Dekalb county. Valley Head is 90 miles northeast of here.

Sheriff W.F. Maynor of Blount county reported that an unidentified body was taken from the ruins of a burned home near Oneonta.

A Red Cross disaster crew was dispatched to the Hackneyville storm area to aid other Negro families whose houses were damaged by the twister.

Gov. James E. Folsom called on National Guardsmen at Oneonta to aid in the search for the missing. Blood plasma, hospital supplies and nurses were sent to the Oneonta area by highway patrolmen.