Authorities have released the names of the 23 people, including four young children, who were killed when powerful tornadoes ripped through Lee County, Alabama, on Sunday, leaving the close-knit community of Beauregard in mourning.
This storm brought the highest tornado death toll in the United States since 2013, according to the National Weather Service.
The victims’ ages range from 6 to 89, according to the coroner.
Among the children was 10-year-old Taylor Thornton, who was at her best friend’s house when she was killed, her parents told ABC News.
At least seven of the victims were from two families who are related by marriage and lived a few houses apart, Coroner Bill Harris said Tuesday.
Armondo (AJ) Hernandez, 6
Charlotte Ann Miller, 59
David Dean, 53
Emmanuiel Jones, 53
Eric Jamal Stenson, 38
Felicia Woodall, 22
Florel Tate Stenson, 63
Henry Lewis Stenson, 65
Irma Gomez-Moran, 41
James Henry Tate, 86
Jimmy Lee Jones, 89
Jonathan Marquez Bowen, 9
Maggie Delight Robinson, 57
Mamie Roberts Koon, 68
Marshall Lynn Grimes, 59
Mary Louise Jones, 83
Mykala Waldon, 8
Raymond Robinson Jr., 63
Ryan Pence, 22
Sheila Creech, 59
Taylor Thornton, 10
Tresia Robinson, 62
Vicki Braswell, 69
Those killed lived in a roughly one-square-mile area of the town of Beauregard, a resilient, community-oriented town of roughly 9,000, said Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones.
“Never have we witnessed the magnitude of this type of trauma, of tragedy,” Rusty Sowell, pastor at the local Providence Baptist Church, told ABC News Tuesday.
Sowell said, however, that he “witnessed a tremendous demonstration of love” when families learned of their loved one’s fates.
Preliminary reports indicate the deadly twister reached an EF-4 category, with winds estimated at 170 mph.
As of Tuesday, about seven to eight people remained unaccounted for, said Jones.
ABC News’ Brendan Rand contributed to this report.
