A tornado that touched down in a small Alabama town early Tuesday morning wiped out several government buildings and killed an 81-year-old woman.

Houston County Commissioner Brandon Shoupe said the recovery effort in Cottonwood, population 1,048, “will take weeks.”

“Please do not travel to the town for at least the next few days while teams secure power lines and dangerous debris,” Shoupe said on his Facebook page, where he shared photos of the destruction in Cottonwood.

Jim Smith, the town’s public safety director, told WDHN that government buildings, including the town hall and water department, along with several downtown structures sustained damage from the tornado.

“The town of Cottonwood is basically destroyed,” Smith told the network.

The damage was so widespread that Smith instituted a lockdown banning anyone from entering the town from Tuesday morning through Wednesday morning.

The tornado was blamed for the death of an 81-year-old resident.

Houston County Deputy Coroner Andrew Byrd identified the victim as Charlotte Paschal, 81.

“She was in her mobile home, unfortunately, when she passed,” Byrd said.

The deputy coroner said a tornado that tore through Cottonwood, near Dothan, lifted Paschal’s mobile home before the structure tumbled several times.

The storms across Alabama caused extensive damage, including trees that fell from Mobile to Cullman counties, and left tens of thousands of residents without power.

In Birmingham, a driver was killed when a tree fell on their vehicle along Crestwood Boulevard late Tuesday morning.

However, it was unclear whether that fatality was storm-related.