Two young children have been identified as victims of the deadly tornadoes that swept through Alabama — including one that was upgraded on Monday to category EF-4, the second most violent.

Armando “AJ” Hernandez, 6, and Taylor Thornton, a fourth grader, are among at least 23 people killed when back-to-back twisters ripped through Lee County on Sunday afternoon, according to AL.com.

The boy’s mom, Kayla Melton, put out a frantic call on Facebook on Sunday, saying he’d last been seen in the town of Beauregard.

“Please look for my baby hes 6 years old his name is Armando Hernandez he goes by AJ last seen on lee road 38. Anyone in the area please help me find him please!!!!!” Melton wrote.

Little AJ’s death was later confirmed by local radio station 97.5 FM.

“AJ’s mother and family have been advised and have officially released that AJ had been found deceased,” the station wrote in a post.

Taylor’s mother and father were also in mourning on Monday, according to a family friend who created a GoFundMe account toward her funeral expenses.

“On Sunday March 3rd, a catastrophic tornado devastated Lee County, Alabama. Our dear friends, Ashley and David Thornton lost their precious daughter, Taylor in that storm,” the pal wrote. “Words don’t even come close to imagining the pain they are enduring. Taylor was an amazing example of a child of God. She brought so much joy to all that knew her. She was loved dearly and will forever be missed.”

The little girl was a fourth-grade student at Lee-Scott Academy, the school said in a post.

The fundraiser raised more than $21,000 as of Monday afternoon.

At a press conference, Lee County Coroner Bill Harris said three children, ages 6, 9 and 10, were among the dead. He warned that the death toll could increase as searches for dozens of those missing continue.

Initially, the National Weather Service in Birmingham estimated that one of the twisters that hit Lee County was an EF3. But it was later upgraded to an EF4, the second most violent on the Enhanced Fujita scale. The nearly mile-wide funnel brought winds of 170 mph and carved a 24-mile path that stretched toward Georgia, according to NWS meteorologist Chris Darden.

Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones called the destruction “catastrophic,” according to CNN.

“Houses completely destroyed, homes — just basically slabs left where once stood a home,” Jones said. “Massive damage. In specific areas the contents of one residence we know for a fact were located over 1,000 yards away.”

Darden said the EF4 was one of several tornadoes that struck in southeastern Alabama. Another one was in Macon County and an EF1 touched down in Barbour County.
The storms were part of a larger system that slashed its way through parts of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.

EF4 twisters are a rare event — only about six are reported a year, according to USTornadoes.com, which said they leave “total destruction in their wake.” Meanwhile, residents of Lee County, located adjacent to the Georgia state line, only got a five-minute warning before the first of two tornadoes hit, according to CNN.

The first tornado warning was issued at 2:58 p.m. and the first reports of damage came in five minutes later.

A second twister hit less than an hour later, at 3:38 p.m. with the first reports of damage coming 13 minutes later.

The tornadoes were the deadliest in Alabama since 2011, when one in Tuscaloosa-Birmingham killed more than 200 people.