BIRMINGHAM,
Ala. — A wave of tornado-spawning storms that ravaged Mississippi and
Alabama, having splintered buildings in its path and leaving scores dead in its
wake, is now in Georgia.
Authorities said early Thursday that nine people had been
killed in that state,increases the death toll to 82 across four states in the
South. Alabama is by far the hardest-hit, with at least 61 deaths, including 16
in Tuscaloosa, according to the city's mayor. The death toll was expected to
rise.
The university town of Tuscaloosa was obliterated, a nuclear
power plant had to use backup generators and even a weather service office had
to be evacuated because of the storms. The mayor said the city's infrastructure
was devastated.
Birmingham was also hard hit by the same massive tornado,
which touched down near the Mississippi state line and then spent more than two
hours on the ground before tracking northeast.
Local TV channels showed the black wedge cloud, estimated at
a mile wide, moving through Tuscaloosa, then along Interstate 59 through
Birmingham's northern suburbs and just missing the airport.
In Mississippi, 11 people had been killed. Nine people were
killed in Georgia and one in Tennessee.
The storms also spawned tornadoes in Virginia and were
heading northeast, where they had already caused flooding in New York.
In Tuscaloosa, news footage showed paramedics lifting a child
out of a flattened home, with many neighboring buildings in the city of more
than 83,000 also reduced to rubble. A hospital there said its emergency room had
admitted about 100 people, but had treated some 400. Charts weren't even started
for many patients because so many people were coming in at once. By midnight,
only staff and patients were allowed inside.
"What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have
not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," Mayor Walter Maddox told reporters,
adding that he expected his city's death toll to rise.
President Barack Obama declared an emergency in Alabama, and
Gov. Robert Bentley mobilized 1,400 National Guardsmen to help in rescue
operations.
'Total devastation' Back in Alabama, at least 11 people were confirmed dead
earlier in the towns of Concord and Pleasant Grove near Birmingham, according to
Jefferson County Emergency Management officials. Injuries and structural damage
were widespread there and in other suburbs of Birmingham, which has a metro
population of 1 million.
In Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, cars were
tossed along a commercial street and dozens of stores were destroyed or damaged.
Ambulances were seen rushing to the area after the storm passed.
Video taken at the university showed a massive funnel cloud
(on this page) flinging huge pieces of debris through the air.
Another resident, Phil Owen, said only one store was left
standing at a shopping center. "Big Lots, Full Moon Barbecue. Piles of garbage
where those places were," he said. "Shell gas station across the street — all
that's standing is the frame of the store."
At Stephanie's Flowers, owner Bronson Englebert used the
headlights from two delivery vans to see what valuables he could remove the
valuables. The storm blew out the front of his store, pulled down the ceiling
and shattered the windows, leaving only the curtains flapping in the breeze and
the steel siding rattling.
"It even blew out the back wall, and I've got bricks on top
of two delivery vans now," Englebert said. A group of students stopped to help
Englebert, and carried out items like computers and printers and putting them in
his van.
"They've been awfully good to me so far," Englebert said.
"Please pray for us," Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox said on
The Weather Channel as crews fanned out to search for victims in the city of
nearly 100,000.
As the night progressed, more tornadoes and severe
thunderstorms were tracking northeast, roughly paralleling the line of the most
devastating storm.
Damage from storms throughout the day was reported from
Huntsville in the northern part of the state, south to Montgomery.
Earlier, an area of northwest Alabama near the Mississippi
state line was hit especially hard.
NBC station WAFF of Huntsville reported that dozens of people
were unaccounted for in the small town of Red Bay. WAFF said that at least six
people had been killed in the small town of Arab.
Just to the east in Cullman, Ala., which is north of the
track of the tornado that hit Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, officials said they saw
a twister tear through the downtown area, destroying or damaging most buildings
along the main street, including the courthouse and a church. One person was
reported killed in the area.
People inside City Hall took shelter in a vault, Mayor Max
Towson said. Crews were out looking for any victims and surveying the damage, he
added.
Three nuclear reactors at the Browns Ferry plant west of
Huntsville, Ala., were shut down Wednesday after losing power, and 11
high-voltage power lines were knocked out by the storms, the Tennessee Valley
Authority and regulators said. Northern Alabama was facing power outages that
would last for days, WAFF reported.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama offered
condolences to families affected by the storms and commended "the heroic efforts
of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster."
The White House declaration authorizes the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts in Alabama.
The National Weather Service there was a high risk for severe
weather into Wednesday night. The greatest threat for new tornadoes was in
northern Alabama, northwest Georgia, eastern Mississippi and southern Tennessee,
weather.com
reported.
The overall system also reportedly spawned a tornado in
Quantico, Va., Wednesday evening.
Summary of casualties Below is a look at other states hit by the severe
weather overnight and into Thursday morning.
Mississippi: The Mississippi
Emergency Management Agency said the state's death toll is now 11.
Jeff Rent, a spokesman for the agency, confirmed the number
Wednesday night and said there have been more than 40 injuries.
Authorities said a possible tornado heavily damaged much of
the town of Smithville in Monroe County.
"The same areas keep getting hit over and over again," Rent
said.
A police officer on a camping trip was killed while shielding
his daughter when the storm ripped through a state park in northern Mississippi.
The victim, from Covington, La., was not immediately identified.
"He covered his daughter with his body when the storm came
through to protect her. A tree limb fell and hit him in the head, killing him.
The daughter was not hurt. She was still at the campground waiting for family to
arrive," Choctaw County Coroner Keith Coleman said.
Another man was crushed in his mobile home when a tree fell
during the storm, and a truck driver died after hitting a downed tree on a state
highway.
A worker was killed Wednesday in Yazoo County while removing
a tree from a roadway.
Arkansas: One person died in
a storm in Sharp County late Tuesday.
Dozens of tornado warnings were issued in Arkansas throughout
the night. Strong winds peeled part of the roof off of a medical building next
to a hospital in West Memphis, near the Tennessee border, but no one was inside.
Louisiana: Police said they
believed two people found dead in Monroe had drowned during heavy flooding
Wednesday.
Thunderstorms with high winds and possible tornadoes caused
tree and power line damage from Bastrop to Tishomingo County in northeastern
Mississippi late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.
Officials reported minor injuries in northwestern Louisiana
when a trailer at an oil drilling site turned over in high winds in Bossier
Parish.
Tennessee: In eastern
Tennessee, what appeared to be a tornado struck just outside Chattanooga in
Tiftonia, at the base of the tourist peak Lookout Mountain. One person was
reported killed by falling trees in her trailer in Chattanooga.
Angela Milchack had just dropped off her son at school.
Students took cover and none were hurt.
"It just sounded like the wind was blowing really, really
hard," she said.
Texas: At least one person
was injured when a storm slammed through the tiny town of Edom some 75 miles
east of Dallas late Tuesday. Witnesses described seeing what they thought was a
tornado rolling the woman's mobile home with her inside.
A video shot by the Tyler Morning Telegraph showed emergency
responders covering the injured woman to shield her from rain and hail. Her
mobile home was reduced to a pile of debris in the road.
"We have multiple houses damaged or destroyed," said Chuck
Allen, Van Zandt County emergency management spokesman. He said he would survey
the area by helicopter Wednesday to get an accurate count.
Georgia: Severe storms in
northwest Georgia downed trees, blew out windows in a hospital and tore off part
of a school roof. Nine people were reported killed in the storms as of early
Thursday morning.
Two of those deaths were in Ringgold, where up to 200 people
were reported injured. Dade County Sheriff Patrick Canon
told
NBC station WXIA that three people died in his county. He said his family's
home was flattened.
This article contains reporting from The Associated Press,
Reuters, NBC News and msnbc.com.
