Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Posted on 04/28/2011 12:00:03 AM PDT by dragnet2
Deadly tornadoes, thunderstorms tore through the south Wednesday killing more than 70 people in four states.
This is latest round of storms to hit the region over past several days.
At least 77 deaths are being blamed on the severe weather, according to the Associated Press.
The majority of those deaths were reported in Alabama with 61 people killed – including 15 in the city of Tuscaloosa alone.
Mayor Walter Maddox confirmed that 15 people died Wednesday in Tuscaloosa, Ala., a city of approximately 180,000 leveled by an estimated mile-wide tornado.
A tornado moves through Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Wednesday, April 27, 2011. A wave of severe storms laced with tornadoes strafed the South on Wednesday, killing dozens of people around the region and splintering buildings across swaths of an Alabama university town.
"I'm in my car at corner on McFarland. Milo's Hamburgers isn't there anymore," Tuscaloosa resident Phil Owen told ABC News affiliate WBMA.
"We have way over 100 injuries throughout the city of Tuscaloosa," Mayor Maddox said Wednesday. "We have hundreds of homes and businesses destroyed and hundreds more damaged."
Maddox said the National Guard were being dispatched to devastated areas across the state the Associated Press reported.
President Obama declared a state of emergency for the search and rescue response in Alabama, and Gov. Robert Bentley told WBMA he expected him to declare another one to help pay for the cleanup.
In confirming the state of emergency, President Obama said federal officials had their eye on the storms and would offer help as needed.
"Michelle and I extend our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives because of the tornadoes that have swept through Alabama and the southeastern United States," he said in a written statement.
August said the damage and destruction from on Wednesday's severe weather has left some Alabama residents with no place to go.
"We are opening shelters throughout the state to make sure folks who have nowhere to go, tonight, will have somewhere to go, out of the weather," said August.
Fatalities in Georgia, Mississippi
Crystal Paulk-Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Georgia emergency management in Atlanta, said four people have been killed so far.
In addition, at least 11 were dead in Mississippi, ABC News confirmed.
at least one person killed in Tennessee Wednesday.
The weather system was expected to move into Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky overnight and into the Carolinas by Thursday morning.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Alabama
Unknown location
I am so sorry for your loss.
Death toll now approaching 300
Tornadoes and storms rip through South, at least 284 dead
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/28/us-weather-health-idUSTRE73R7MM20110428
Well, yes and no.
In another article, the city spokeswoman said only two in the city, all others were in unincorporated areas.
The midwest has lots of experience with powerful tornadoes, just look at how they handle them. Shelters, especially underground, are much more common. How to survive one is taught in schools, and very few don't know the drill.
The southeast has lots of storms, but few are as powerful and long-lasting as yesterday's. Shelters are rare, not many basements, and awareness of survival tactics is not well taught and heeded.
I grew up in the midwest, moved to FL at age 35. Locals just don't have the fear and respect needed to survive an F5.
I am so sorry for your loss. My condolences to you and your family!
And my observation ,in my area,is the newer any commercial building or home the less sturdy its construction.Large glass front,open floor plan ,flat roofed and on a concrete slab stores have NO real shelter capability.Nor can a home built to code minimums.And what many call a brick home is only a brick veneer that adds no strength to the structure.
The 1950s home shelter wasn't even that common then,much less now.The human response is usually to build back the same old way because of costs or other constraints,and besides "that will never happen again".
The miracle is that more weren't killed .
God please comfort the afflicted.
I’m really sorry to hear that about the loss of your Grandmother. There is nothing that one can say to make anything right in that regard, although I wish there was.
There is certainly no good answer to all of this, but my gut feeling says we need to start re-investing in actually protecting OUR country, the USA, and Americans instead of wasting trillions a year playing policeman of the world for free and waging war for the security of other nations, and paying off the crooks of Wall Street.
There are cures for cancer and technology that could warn people of tornadoes and or possibly prevent them, but we aren’t ever going to do it by wasting all our money blowing up other countries. Now we have a whole new set of neocons wanting us to fight in Libya or Iran while the other countries go about their business and their citizens retire early.
I'm not just bitter about O, I'm bitter about every elected official for the last 30 years that failed the common sense test, failed to protect our borders, failed to protect us on 9-11 from terrorists, failed to protect our jobs and economy and outsourced jobs to China, and waged perpetual foolish wars for other countries that cost Americans their retirements, all while the international bankers that killed the economy get richer on our dime. It makes me livid to see what many politicians of all Parties have done to the USA to either enrich their cronies or to get reelected.
Preach on, brother.
So sorry for the loss of your Grandmother. Prayers for you and your family at this time.
IBTZ
I was watching the fly over videos. What an unimaginable tragedy. Sadly, I think those numbers are going to go much higher.
BTW, how many foreign countries have offered aid, like we constantly, to our brothers and sisters in the south?
The last I heard, it’s up to around 300.
God bless and be with everyone there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
