CAMP HILL, Alabama: Claudette regained tropical storm status and headed out to sea from the North Carolina coast on Monday (Jun 21), less than two days after the system killed 14 people in Alabama, including eight children who died in a highway crash.

The children who died Saturday were in a van for a home for abused or neglected children when it erupted in flames in the wreck along a wet Interstate 65 about 55 kilometres south of Montgomery. Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock said multiple vehicles probably hydroplaned.