The children who perished Saturday were in a van for a home for abused or neglected kids as it erupts in flames in the wreck along a wet Interstate 65 about 35 miles (55 km ) south of Montgomery. Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock stated multiple vehicles likely hydroplaned.
The crash also claimed the lives of two individuals in a different vehicle — a 29-year-old Tennessee man and his 9-month-old daughter. Other people were injured.
Elsewhere, a 24-year-old guy and a 3-year-old boy were killed Saturday when a tree fell on their house just outside Tuscaloosa, along with a 23-year-old Fort Payne girl died after her car ran off the road into a swollen creek, authorities said.
News outlets reported that search dogs located the body of a person believed to have dropped into the water through flash flooding in Birmingham.
The storm was approximately 90 miles (145 km ) south of Ocean City, Maryland, and moving east-northeast in 28 mph (45 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.
The system was expected to pass south of Nova Scotia before dissipating late Tuesday.
Approximately 1 to 2 inches (3 to 5 centimeters) of rain was expected from the Carolinas until Claudette transferred out to sea.
The van in Saturday’s crash was carrying kids ages 4 to 17 who were being cared for in the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch, a childhood home operated by the Alabama Sheriffs Association that takes in abused and neglected children, including foster children.
The van has been heading back to the ranch near Camp Hill, northeast of Montgomery, after a week at the beach in Gulf Shores. Ranch Director Candice Gulley was the van’s only survivor — pulled out of the flames by a bystander.
“Words can’t explain what I saw,” Michael Smith, the youth ranch’s CEO, due to the accident site, which he seen Saturday. He returned from Gulf Shores in a separate van and did not see the crash when it happened.
A couple of the dead in the van were her kids, ages 4 and 16. Four others were ranch residents and two were guests,” Smith said.
