Deadliest tornado kills 10-year old, 23 others in Alabama

A weekend camping trip ended in tragedy for 10-year-old Taylor Thornton, identified on Monday as one of at least 23 people killed by the deadliest U.S. tornadoes in more than five years.

Thornton was rarely seen without a smile on her face, whether walking the halls as a fourth-grader at Lee-Scott Academy in Auburn, Alabama or helping her parents take care of her infant brother, James Thornton, her uncle, said in a phone interview. "She never met a stranger - everybody was a friend," her uncle said. "She had a huge life at 10 years old. She had a footprint bigger than most people who are 70-, 80-, 90-years-old."

Thornton one of at two children killed on Sunday when a series of deadly tornadoes tore through Lee County. Taylor had spent the weekend camping with her best friend and her friend's father before returning to the friend's house in Lee County because of bad weather.

When Taylor did not return home after church on Sunday, her father, David, drove to the friend's house looking for her. He found his daughter's body amid the wreckage of the home, James Thornton said. The father of Taylor's friend, whose name was not immediately clear, also died. The friend survived and was taken to a hospital with injuries.

Taylor enrolled at Lee-Scott, a private Christian school, last fall and was a well-liked member of the class, according to the principal, Stan Cox. "She made friends easily," Cox said in a phone interview. "She made everybody around her better just by knowing her."

Taylor loved the outdoors, riding horses, playing soccer and cheerleading, and had just won an "honourable mention" at Lee-Scott's art show. A 6-year-old boy, Armando Hernandez, also went missing during the tornadoes and was later found dead, according to posts from his relatives on Facebook.

His mother, Kayla Melton, posted a message on Sunday afternoon asking people to look for him. A relative, Tina Melton, wrote in the evening that the boy, who went by AJ, did not survive. "I will miss your little smile and your sweet voice and face," Tina Melton wrote. "He was always eager to give hugs and loved his family."

Efforts to reach Hernandez's family by phone were unsuccessful. 

(With inputs from agencies.)