Tornado Leaves Serious Damage in Prattville, AL

A tornado in Prattville, AL left the Alabama town in disarray Sunday, damaging or destroying 200 homes.

Twenty-seven people had minor injuries, but no fatalities were reported in Prattville, a suburb of Montgomery.

A 35-bed mobile hospital unit was set up outside a K-mart to treat victims with minor to moderate injuries in order for hospitals to take care of victims with serious injuries.

About 9,000 homes and businesses lost power in Prattville.

The tornado was part of a bevy of storms that swept across the South, damaging homes elsewhere in Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.

A tornado destroyed four homes in Escambia County, FL. 60 other homes, businesses and storage buildings were damaged.

Across the border in Escambia County, AL, two houses were destroyed by a possible tornado in rural Dixie.

The weekend was full of inclement weather elsewhere, as there was heavy rain, snow and flooding in the Midwest.

Prattville is a city in Autauga and Elmore Counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 31,119.[1] The city is the county seat of Autauga County, Alabama. It is nicknamed "The Fountain City" due to the many artesian wells in the area. The city was founded in 1839 by well-known industrialist and architect Daniel Pratt.

What is now Prattville was largely inhabited by Native Americans and a few settlers when Daniel Pratt, a native of Temple, New Hampshire, first observed the Autauga Creek in the 1830s.

Pratt purchased approximately 1,000 acres (4 km²) from Joseph May at $21.00 an acre, and set out to build his manufacturing facilities and the town along the banks of the Autauga creek. This location was chosen because the creek could supply power to the cotton gin manufacturing equipment.

In the past 10 years, Prattville's city limits have begun to expand eastward into neighboring Elmore County. While the original plan was to keep this portion of the city strictly commercial, due to the rapid increase in population, housing developments are currently being built on the Elmore County side.

Prattville is also the home of singer Wilson Pickett, as well as NFL stars Roman Harper, Kevin Turner, and Zac Woodfin. Marlon Anderson, a major league baseball player, is originally from Prattville. Prattville is also the home of Bryant Horne.

Prattville has become a popular golf destination, offering one of the widely famed Robert Trent Jones Golf Courses. With year-round warmth, hot summers and short, mild winters this destination offers entertainment through out the year.