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.
Thank you all for your kindness and prayers. I just got off the phone with my Mother and this is going to be difficult. Making arrangements at this time is somewhat complicated. Obviously the normal facilities have been interrupted. There is a lot of confusion as far as how to proceed. Currently she is in a temporary morgue set up at an Elementary School.
Her home is no longer there. That house and the dinner table was the center of gravity for my entire family. We have many things to repair. Thank you all again.
Aw. Sad. Prayers up for you and your family.
Of course the reality being that there is not one darn good thing about this except possibly lessons learned.
THIS IS NOT the same request that we heard from for the mobile morgue last night...that was on the GA AL line.
Weather channel reporter is in the middle of a debris field...said he could hear moans coming from rubble, with no organized rescue within site. HVY equipment needed for extraction but the area is just too damaged.
There is already a nasty RUMOR that dozens of students have yet to be heard from....(but that is probably because they took cover at another location, and commo is sporadic).
Methinks AL may have 500+ dead before this is all over.
Condolences.
Prayers and condolences.
Wonder how fast that devastated area will receive emergency funds for repair!
Don’t know when a major tornado has hit TWO major cities like this one.
Scary to contemplate how much higher the death toll would have been without the tremendous forecasting abilities we have today.
Federal Obama Dollars are scheduled to arrive in late October 2012.
UPDATE:
At least 36 killed in Ringgold. 231 Confirmed dead so far.
Prayers and condolences.
36 in Ringgold - I figured that toll would rise today. The super-8 was demolished, probably other hotels as well, at the 151/I-75 interchange.
One more thing: disk to dawn curfew is now ordered in (at least) Limestone and Madison counties in N. Alabama.
I am so sorry for your loss. Prayers up for you and your family.
We can’t buy rain in West Texas, and everywhere else it seems is stormy and flooding etc.
It is so dry here it’s ridiculous.
Prayers up for the tornadoes....this was a horrific and historic tornado outbreak.
Well, he wants to create disaster by listing that lizard, so no shock he doesn’t care about some fires.
Prayers lifted for your grandmother, and for you all...
May God rest the souls who were lost, and bring comfort to those who remain.
Tatt
Oh no. Deepest sympathy on the loss of your grandmother. Your love for her just shines out from your post. May God bless you, and God rest her soul.
Update from Birmingham:
As for what the last 36 hours have been like here, it can best be described as a Cat 5 land hurricane. It was relentless, coming into us wave after wave. We are shaken, but fine. We lost several big trees and now have a tarp on the roof. We lost power in a morning tornado so communication was difficult during the afternoon warnings. Cell phones are useless right now. I know of no one here who has not been impacted by this devastation.
The northern half of the state has most of the destruction. The University of Alabama has suspended all operations. While the university itself was undamaged, many offcampus housing complexes have been completely destroyed and many students are still missing. A friend’s son hid under a mattress in a hall as his house was destroyed around him. He has no idea where his car is. Please pray for the families of the missing students, and I cannot say this without a well of tears. We know some of them, mine went to school with them, and mine was also in the path of these storms at the state’s other large university. I can be grateful the system weakenend before reaching that part of the state.
We know a fireman whose coworkers are assigned to the search and rescue in Pleasant Grove. The wife has asked for prayers for those who are assigned to that task, because locating the deceased is something that will haunt them always. The death toll is expected to rise drastically as search and rescue continues.
There were two most difficult times for us yesterday. One was where the Tuscaloosa tornado was heading our way. I cleaned out the closet under my basement stairwell for the first time ever to provide it as a tornado shelter. The tornado went more north of here, and needless to say, a basement stairwell closet was of no protection to those people.
The second most difficult time was when we heard my inlaw’s small town took a direct and devastating hit. We had just spoken with them before the storm hit. Afterwards, we could not get through. My niece tried to get to them and the police would not let her through. Many buildings were “just gone”. My niece contacted someone who went in from the other side to check on them and they were fine.
Nothing here is like it was 48 hours ago. Please keep us in your prayers. I hope to God I never have to go through anything like this again.
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