Must be a pretty terrifying time for those residents
Is this America's tsunami? 297 dead and thousands of homes destroyed as worst storm outbreak for 40 years cuts through South
# Current death toll is 210 in Alabama, 33 in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, 5 in Virginia and 1 in Kentucky
# Alabama university town of Tuscaloosa one of worst hit areas by deadliest weather storm system for 40 years
# 1800s tombstones in Smithville Cemetery, as well as some of Civil War soldiers, lay broken on the ground
# 2,000 National Guard troops activated to help Alabama and Obama pledges government will do 'everything we can'
# Death toll is greatest from an outbreak of U.S. tornadoes since 1974, when 315 people were killed by a 13-state storm
# System now heading north and east as weather warnings issued along most of Eastern seaboard
At least 297 people have been killed across six states in the deadliest tornado outbreak to hit the U.S. in almost 40 years.
More than two-thirds of the deaths are in Alabama, where large cities bore half-mile-wide scars the twisters left behind and firefighters searched one splintered pile after another for survivors.
Residents were told the tornadoes were coming up to 24 minutes ahead of time, but they were just too wide, too powerful and too locked onto populated areas to avoid a horrifying body count.
Write off: A man drives his badly damaged car in Tuscaloosa, one of the towns worst hit by tornadoes
Devastation: An aerial view of a home in Ringgold, Georgia, shows that a tornado has completely torn off its roof, leaving nothing but misery in its wake
‘These were the most intense super-cell thunderstorms that I think anybody who was out there forecasting has ever seen,’ said National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Carbin.
‘If you experienced a direct hit from one of these, you'd have to be in a reinforced room, storm shelter or underground’.
The storms seemed to hug the interstate highways as they barrelled along like runaway trucks, obliterating neighborhoods or even entire towns from Tuscaloosa in Alabama to Bristol, Virginia.
Before the destruction: The same block of properties in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, before the storms. Seven southern U.S. states were affected by the killer storms
Ruins: An aerial view of tornado damage shows entire block of homes in ruins in Tuscaloosa. The death toll of nearly 300 throughout the six affected states is expected to rise further still
One family rode out the disaster in the basement of a funeral home, and another did so by huddling in a tanning bed.
In Concord, a small town outside Birmingham that was ravaged by a tornado, Randy Guyton's family got a phone call from a friend warning them to take cover.
They rushed to the basement garage, piled into a Honda Ridgeline and listened to the roar as the twister devoured the house in seconds. Afterwards they could see outside through the shards of their home and scrambled out.
Wasteland: Overnight tornadoes leave part of Pratt City, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, in ruins. Houses were reduced to rubble while cars were tossed about like toys before being slammed into the ground by the deadly twisters
Scene of destruction: A car lies overturned and buildings are reduced to firewood in Tuscaloosa, after a mile-wide tornado barrelled through destroying everything in its path
‘The whole house caved in on top of that car,’ he said. ‘Other than my boy screaming to the Lord to save us, being in that car is what saved us.’
Son Justin, 22, remembers the dingy white cloud moving quickly toward the house. ‘To me it sounded like destruction,’ he said. ‘It was a mean, mean roar. It was awful.’
At least three people died in a Pleasant Grove subdivision southwest of Birmingham, where residents trickled back on Thursday to survey the damage.
Greg Harrison's neighbourhood was somehow unscathed, but he remains haunted by the wind, thunder and lightning as they built to a crescendo, then suddenly stopped.
‘Sick is what I feel,’ he said. ‘This is what you see in Oklahoma and Kansas. Not here. Not in the South.’
Alabama Emergency Management officials said early Friday that the state had 210 confirmed deaths. There were 33 deaths in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky. Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured - nearly 800 in Tuscaloosa alone.
Stormy skies: A police officer walks under a tangle of power lines and snarled signs after a tornado swept through Ringgold, Georgia
What's left: Homes and businesses along McFarland Boulevard are completely destroyed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Some of the worst damage was about 50 miles southwest of Pleasant Grove in Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is home to the University of Alabama.
The storms destroyed the city's emergency management centre, so the school's Bryant-Denny Stadium was turned into a makeshift one. School officials said two students were killed, though they did not say how they died. Finals were cancelled and commencement was postponed.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox told reporters that police and the National Guard will impose a curfew at 10 p.m. Thursday, and 8 p.m. the next night.
Authorities have been searching for survivors so far, but Maddox said they will begin using cadaver dogs on Friday.
A tower-mounted news camera in Tuscaloosa captured images of an astonishingly thick, powerful tornado flinging debris as it levelled neighbourhoods.
That twister and others Wednesday were several times more severe than a typical tornado, which is hundreds of yards wide, has winds around 100mph and stays on the ground for a few miles, said research meteorologist Harold Brooks.
'There's a pretty good chance some of these were a mile wide, on the ground for tens of miles and had wind speeds over 200 mph,’ he said.
The loss of life is the greatest from an outbreak of U.S. tornadoes since April 1974, when the weather service said 315 people were killed by a storm that swept across 13 Southern and Midwestern states.
Mr Brooks said the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa could be an EF5 - the strongest category of tornado, with winds of more than 200 mph - and was at least the second-highest category, an EF4.
Search and rescue teams fanned out to dig through the rubble of devastated communities that bore eerie similarities to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when town after town lay flattened for nearly 90 miles.
In Phil Campbell, a small town of 1,000 in northwest Alabama where 26 people died, the grocery store, gas stations and medical clinic were destroyed by a tornado that Mayor Jerry Mays estimated was a half-mile wide and travelled some 20 miles.
'We've lost everything. Let's just say it like it is,’ Mays said. ‘I'm afraid we might have some suicides because of this.’
President Barack Obama said he would travel to Alabama on Friday to view storm damage and meet Governor Robert Bentley and affected families. On Thursday he signed a disaster declaration for the state to provide federal aid to those who seek it.
As many as a million homes and businesses there were without power, and Governor Bentley said 2,000 National Guard troops had been activated to help. The governors of Mississippi and Georgia also issued emergency declarations for parts of their states.
‘We can't control when or where a terrible storm may strike, but we can control how we respond to it,’ Mr Obama said.
‘And I want every American who has been affected by this disaster to know that the federal government will do everything we can to help you recover and we will stand with you as you rebuild.’
Widespread: The map shows the path of the tornadoes as they stretched from Alabama and up to Virginia
The storm prediction centre said it received 164 tornado reports around the region, but some tornadoes were probably reported multiple times and it could take days to get a final count.
In fact, Mr Brooks said 50 to 60 reports - from the Mississippi-Alabama line, through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and into Georgia and southwestern Tennessee - might end up being a single tornado.
If that's true its path would be one of the longest on record for a twister, rivalling a 1925 tornado that raged for 219 miles.
Mr Brooks said the weather service was able to provide about 24 minutes' notice before the twisters hit. ‘It was a well-forecasted event. People were talking about this week being a big week a week ago.’
Governor Bentley said forecasters did a good job alerting people, but there's only so much they can do to help people prepare.
Officials said at least 13 died in Smithville, Mississippi, where devastating winds ripped open the police station, post office, city hall and an industrial park with several furniture factories.
Pieces of tin were twined high around the legs of a blue water tower, and the Piggly Wiggly grocery store was gutted.
‘It's like the town is just gone,’ said 24-year-old Jessica Monaghan, wiping away tears as she toted nine-month-old son Slade Scott. The baby's father, Tupelo firefighter Tyler Scott, was at work when the warning came on the TV.
‘It said be ready in 10 minutes, but about that time, it was there,’ Monaghan said. She, Slade and the family's cat survived by hiding in a closet.
Ruins: An aerial view of tornado damage shows entire blocks of homes in ruins in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Forecasters say it is the deadliest storm for 40 years
Sculpted: Hunks of metal lie in a twisted mess after being torn apart by a tornado that swept through Ringgold, Georgia
Wreckage: 24 hours earlier Viral Gajjar was sitting in his bedroom, in Ringgold, Georgia, but after the tornado devastated his family home, it's all he can do to sift through the rubble
Remains: Residents survey the destruction after a tornado hit Pratt City. A wave of severe storms laced with tornadoes strafed the South
At Smithville Cemetery, even the dead were not spared. Tombstones dating to the 1800s, including some of Civil War soldiers, lay broken on the ground. Brothers Kenny and Paul Long dragged their youngest brother's headstone back to its proper place.
Some fled to the sturdy centre section of Smithville Baptist Church. Pastor Wes White said they clung to each other and anything they could reach, a single ‘mass of humanity’ as the building disintegrated around them.
The second storey is gone, the walls collapsed, but no one there was seriously hurt. The choir robes remained in place, perfectly white.
Eight people were killed in Georgia's Catoosa County, including in Ringgold, where a suspected tornado flattened about a dozen buildings and trapped an unknown number of people.
’It happened so fast I couldn't think at all,’ said Tom Rose, an Illinois truck driver whose vehicle was blown off the road at I-75 North in Ringgold, near the Tennessee line.
Gone: Residents and others walk by the remains of the First Baptist Church in Smithville, Mississippi, following a tornado that flattened the town
No service: People stand outside the Saint Mary Primitive Baptist Church that was totally destroyed when a fierce tornado hit Pratt City, just north of downtown Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday
Cost: Scores of lorry trailers lie upturned at the Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co in Glade Spring, Virginia
Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers said several residential areas had ‘nothing but foundations left,’ and that some people reported missing had yet to be found.
In Trenton, Georgia, nearly two dozen people took shelter in an Ace Hardware store, including a couple walking by when an employee emerged and told them to take cover immediately.
Lisa Rice, owner of S&L Tans in Trenton, survived by climbing into a tanning bed with her two daughters Stormy, 19, and Sky, 21.
'We got in it and closed it on top of us,’ Ms Rice said. ‘Sky said: “We're going to die”. But, I said, “No, just pray. Just pray, just pray, just pray”.’
For 30 seconds, wind rushed around the bed and debris flew as wind tore off the roof.
‘Then it just stopped. It got real quiet. We waited a few minutes and then opened up the bed and we saw daylight,’ she said.
Twisted: An aerial view shows the path of destruction a tornado took the a marina near Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Aftermath: Residents look at the damage in Pratt City, Birmingham, after roofs were torn off and bricks hurled around
Funnel: A tornado moves through Tuscaloosa on Wednesday. A wave of severe storms splintering buildings across parts of the Alabama university town
The badly damaged Moore Funeral Home, meanwhile, sheltered the woman who cleans Larry Moore's family business.
When the first of three storms hit and uprooted trees in her yard, she thought the funeral home would be a safer place for her two children. As shingles began sailing past the window, she headed for the basement.
‘That's what saved her, I guess,’ Moore said. ‘It was over in just a matter of seconds. She called 911 and emergency crews had to help her get out.’
The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out.
In a large section of eastern Tennessee, officials were looking for survivors and assessing damage. In hard-hit Apison, an unincorporated community near the Georgia state line where eight people died, about 150 volunteers helped with the search.
It was unclear how high the death toll could rise. In Mississippi, Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson and a crew of deputies and inmates searched the rubble, recovering five bodies and marking homes that still had bodies inside with two large orange Xs.
‘I've never seen anything like this,’ Sheriff Johnson said. ‘This is something that no one can prepare for.’
Shell: The majority of this building in Glade Spring, Virginia, has been torn off by the power of the tornado
Melanie Cade, 31, of Choctaw County, Mississippi, patched holes in her roof after it was heavily damaged overnight and was in bed with her three children when the storm hit.
‘The room lit up, even though the power was out’, she said. ‘Stuff was blowing into the house, like leaves and bark. Rain was coming in sideways. I didn't care what happened to the house. I was just glad we got out of there.’
A tornado struck the northern Alabama community of Cullman on Wednesday, damaging a hospital, ripping the roof off the courthouse and pummeling a number of residences, authorities told CNN.
It comes as President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Alabama, authorising the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief efforts in the state.
A storm which brought severe weather to the South earlier this week has moved east at the same time a cold front moved across the Deep South - producing conditions conducive for tornadoes.
The mid-Atlantic region from western New Jersey to South Carolina has the highest chance to be hit by damaging winds today, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
The area has a 30 per cent chance of gusts of about 70 miles per hour and a 10 percent chance of getting hit by a tornado, according to the center.
The rest of the eastern U.S. from the Canadian border at New York to Florida has a 15 per cent chance for high winds and a 5 per cent chance of tornadoes, according to the center.
The worst tornado outbreak in the U.S. was in April 1974, when 148 hit 13 states over a 16-hour period. Some 330 people were killed in the storms and a total of 267 tornadoes hit the U.S. in the month.
FACTBOX: Deadliest tornado days in U.S.
1) March 18, 1925: 747 people killed after tornadoes hit the U.S. Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
2) March 21, 1932: 332 killed, most of them in Alabama, following a wave of tornadoes across the Southeastern United States.
3) May 17, 1840: 317 died, nearly all of them in the city of Natchez, Mississippi, after tornadoes hit Louisiana and Mississippi.
4) April 3, 1974: 310 killed in what is known as the 'Super Outbreak' when 148 tornadoes rampaged across at least 13 U.S. states over a 24-hour period.
5) May 27, 1896: 305 died after tornadoes hit Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky.
6) April 11, 1965: 260 killed in the 'Palm Sunday' tornado outbreak when twisters swept across Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
7) April 5, 1936: 249 died, most them in Tupelo, Mississippi, following an outbreak of tornadoes in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama.
8) April 20, 1920: 224 killed in Mississippi and Alabama.
9) April 24, 1908: 224 died in tornado outbreak that hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
10) April 6, 1936: 205 killed, nearly all of them in Gainesville, Georgia.
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory
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