ALABAMA, United States (Reuters) — A tropical depression formerly known as Tropical Storm Cindy caused flooding on Thursday (June 22) in several United States southeastern states, spawned a tornado that injured four people in Alabama, and cut 16 percent of Gulf of Mexico oil production.
Cindy was a tropical storm when it made landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border about 3 a.m. CT (0800 GMT) Thursday, then weakened as it traveled north.
By afternoon, it was over northern Louisiana, and its heavy rains had resulted in flooding and road closures in each state bordering the Gulf, from eastern Texas to northwestern Florida.
A tornado was reported on Thursday near Birmingham, Alabama, destroying several buildings and injuring at least four people, according to the National Weather Service and local media.
None of the injuries was life-threatening, said Nick Dyer, police chief in Fairfield, where the tornado hit.
The National Hurricane Center forecast that the storm would reach southeastern Arkansas early Friday and Tennessee later that day, possibly causing more flooding.