Last weekend’s tornado cut a 23-mile path across two counties, weather officials said Friday.
Jeff Garmin of the Mobile National Weather Service office said the tornado  destroyed several homes and damaged 27 others.
“The tornado caused higher damage amounts in Escambia County near Damascus,” Garmin said. “It was determined that it was an EF-2 tornado with winds up to 130 miles per hour that destroyed three homes and did a significant amount of damage to seven others. It continued eastward following Brooklyn Road into the southern portion of Andalusia, where if lifted back into the sky at the (Kiwanis) fairgrounds. All in all, it cut a 23-mile track.”
Garmin said once the storm crossed the county line, winds had decreased to 110 miles per hour where the maximum path width was an average of 100 to 200 yards. “In some areas, though, it increased to 300 yards wide,” he said.
Garmin said if the storm had moved northward, it would have placed the tornado through a heavier populated residential area of the city.
“There was the danger of a potentially deadly tornado locally,” he said. “We did lose seven lives in Alabama, and while there was damage locally, it could have been a lot worse.”