Thursday storms knock out power to 18,000

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Authorities say fierce thunderstorms knocked out power to 18,000 customers across Alabama and peeled the roofs from buildings in the Mobile area. Alabama Power spokeswoman Keisa Sharpe-Johnson says the outages were spread across the state, with about 8,600 in the hard-hit Mobile area. About 7,900 outages were in the western part of the state, which included Tuscaloosa, Jasper and Haleyville.