At least 4 people have died as flash floods swamp Alabama

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Michael Halbert wades through his flooded neighborhood in Pelham, Ala., on Thursday.

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Jay Reeves/AP

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Metro Birmingham remained under a flash flood watch, and meteorologists predicted another wet day for most of Alabama and parts of Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. As much as 5 more inches (13 centimeters) of rain was possible through Thursday evening, the weather service said.

A 4-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman died in separate incidents when floods carried away vehicles in northeast Alabama, said Marshall County Coroner Cody Nugent. Searchers found the bodies of a boyfriend and girlfriend, both 23, inside a car that was swept away by a fast-moving stream in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, said Shelby County Coroner Lina Evans.

«Normally it’s just a trickle. It was raging,» she said. She identified the victims as Latin Marie Hill and Myles Jared Butler, both of Hoover.

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A flooded neighborhood is shown in Pelham, Ala., on Thursday.

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Jay Reeves/AP

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A police officer helped her to high ground, and Caskey’s husband picked her up on a roadside. But it then took them three hours to travel a few miles home because of flooded roads.

Caskey has heard the weather safety mantra of «turn around, don’t drown,» but said «it really happened so fast I didn’t have time to think about it.»

The Alabama deluge comes about seven weeks after flooding killed more than a dozen people in Tennessee. These types of floods may be more common in the future because of global warming, scientists say.

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In this image taken from video, vehicles drive through floodwaters in Pelham, Ala., late Thursday.

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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 (8 centimeters) 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 Georgia and southern Tennessee.

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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.

Back in Pelham, Michael Halbert waded through his neighborhood to a townhome that filled with more than 40 inches (102 centimeters) of water. He tried to get items off the floor, but still lost some of his belongings, and his Jeep filled with water outside.

«Flood insurance is going to have fun,» he said.

• Alabama
• flooding