Alabama weather update: Girls, 4 and 18, among four killed in flood as SIX INCHES of rainfall leaves dozens stranded

A FOUR-year-old girl and an 18-year-old are among four to have died in a flash flood as six inches of rainfall left dozens stranded.

Flash flood warnings were in effect on Thursday for a swath of the southeastern US after a stalled weather front drenched Alabama, leaving high water that covered roads, swamped a Piggly Wiggly, unleashed sewage and forced water rescues.

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As much as six inches of rain fell in about a day as the low-pressure system lingered over Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

The forecast called for particularly intense rain on Thursday in parts of metro Birmingham, which were under a flash flood watch, but meteorologists predicted another wet day for most of the state and parts of Florida.

The Marshall County coroner’s office tweeted early on Thursday that a four-year-old girl died as a result of the flash flooding in Arab, in northeast Alabama.

Later, they confirmed that an 18-year-old girl also died and her body was found just after 7am in Union Grove.

Two other bodies were found in a vehicle that was swept away in heavy flood waters, but the individuals have not yet been identified.

The rain caused havoc in places across north Alabama, submerging cars in metro Birmingham and parts of the Tennessee Valley.

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Rescue crews helped motorists escape as low visibility and standing water made travel life-threatening in some areas.

In south Alabama near the Florida line, water-covered streets in the flood-prone Escambia County towns of Brewton and East Brewton, inundating businesses in a shopping center with several feet of water.

As much as three feet of water was inside the community’s main grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, and two schools had to cancel classes, said Escambia Sheriff Heath Jackson.

"We’re hoping that the rain is going to stop so we can get some of this water … out of here and we can start getting into these businesses that have taken on water to see what we can do to help them," Jackson told WKRG-TV.

To the south, in Baldwin County, as much as 250,000 gallons (946,000 liters) of waste water overflowed from sewage systems along Mobile Bay, officials said.

With rainfall totals already ranging from 2 inches (5 centimeters) to as much 6 inches across the state this week, forecasters said another 3 inches of rain was possible, with the heaviest rains to the north.

Severe storms and a few isolated tornadoes from a slow-moving low pressure system were a threat, mainly in the afternoon, forecasters said.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for northeastern Alabama, northwestern and southern .

Rains should end in Alabama by late Thursday as storms move eastward.

Flash flood warnings were in effect through Friday along the weather front, stretching from the Florida Panhandle through northern Georgia and mountainous regions of the eastern Tennessee and the western Carolinas.

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