Eight children in youth van among 13 lives lost amid stormy weather in US

Pickup trucks pass each other on a flooded road in Biloxi, Mississippi. Thirteen people died in the southern US after incidents linked to Tropical Depression Claudette (Rogelio V Solis/AP)

Eight children in a van from a youth home for abused or neglected children were killed in a fiery multi-vehicle crash on a wet freeway amid stormy weather in Alabama.

The crash also killed a man and his baby in another vehicle in what was the most devastating blow from a tropical depression that claimed 13 lives in Alabama while causing flash floods and spurring tornadoes that destroyed dozens of homes.