Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Death toll jumps to 193 people in 5 states from killer tornadoes, storms across the South

Video: Storm chasers captured a tornado forming and blowing through Philadelphia, Mississippi. The death toll is rising from storms across the south. (April 28)

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, April 28, 10:35 PM

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The death toll from severe storms that punished five Southern U.S. states jumped to a staggering 193 Thursday after Alabama canvassed its hard-hit counties for a new tally of lives lost.

Alabama’s state emergency management agency said it had confirmed 128 deaths, up from at least 61 earlier.

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Video [embedded] ..
The severe weather system that has ravaged Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia has the death toll rising in the south. (April 28)

The severe weather system that has ravaged Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia has the death toll rising in the south. (April 28)

“We expect that toll, unfortunately, to rise,” Gov. Robert Bentley told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Mississippi officials reported 32 dead in that state and Tennessee raised its report to 14. Another 11 have been killed in Georgia and eight in Virginia.

The fierce storms Wednesday spawned tornadoes and winds that wiped out homes and businesses, forced a nuclear power plant to use backup generators and prompted the evacuation of a National Weather Service office.

The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports around the regions, including 66 in Alabama and 38 in Mississippi.

One of the hardest-hit areas was Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 and home to the University of Alabama. The city’s police and other emergency services were devastated, the mayor said, and at least 15 people were killed and about 100 were in a single hospital.

A massive tornado, caught on video by a news camera on a tower, barreled through the city late Wednesday afternoon, leveling it.

By nightfall, the city was dark. Roads were impassable. Signs were blown down in front of restaurants, businesses were unrecognizable and sirens wailed off and on. Debris littered the streets and sidewalks.

College students in a commercial district near campus used flashlights to check out the damage.

At Stephanie’s Flowers, owner Bronson Englebert used the headlights from two delivery vans to see what valuables he could remove. He had closed early, which was a good thing. 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.

“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, carrying out items like computers and printers and putting them in his van.

“They’ve been awfully good to me so far,” Englebert said.

The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out.

The governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia each issued emergency declarations for parts of their states.

President Barack Obama said he had spoken with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and approved his request for emergency federal assistance, including search and rescue assets. About 1,400 National Guard soldiers were being deployed around the state.

“Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster,” Obama said in a statement.

Around Tuscaloosa, traffic was snarled by downed trees and power lines, and some drivers abandoned their cars in medians.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/emergency-agencies-alabama-death-toll-jumps-to-128-after-storms-miss-up-to-32/2011/04/28/AFvWZY4E_story.html?hpid=z1

It was 38 when here earlier, 60 when the radio came on in the car, then your "at least 159" and now this.

What an absolute travesty! It is terrible news. Many in Australia are thinking of you tonight.