BEAUREGARD, Ala. — Becky Boyd’s phone alerted her on Sunday afternoon that a tornado was imminent, but she didn’t think much of it. Warnings had come before, and nothing had happened.

Then her sister called: A tornado was one road over. Get somewhere safe.

The ferocious storm — almost a mile wide with winds as powerful as a Category 5 hurricane — struck before she could reach the closet in her mobile home. Its force pushed her into the closet face-first as her entire house rolled onto a shed.

She survived. Twenty-three others in eastern Alabama — ranging in age from 6 to 89 — did not.