Scores killed as wave of storms hit US south
A wave of tornadoes and storms hit the American South on Wednesday, splintering buildings across Alabama and killing 72 people in four states.
At least 58 people died in Alabama alone, including 15 or more when a massive tornado devastated Tuscaloosa. The mayor said sections of the city, home to the University of Alabama, have been destroyed and its infrastructure devastated.
Eleven deaths were reported in Mississippi, two in Georgia and one in Tennessee.
News footage showed paramedics lifting a child out of a flattened Tuscaloosa home, with many neighbouring buildings in the city of more than 83,000 reduced to rubble. A hospital there said its emergency room had admitted at least 100 people.
"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 the death toll to rise.
The storm spread destruction on Tuesday night and Wednesday from Texas to Georgia. It was forecast to hit the Carolinas next and then head north-east.
Around Tuscaloosa, traffic was blocked by fallen trees and power lines, forcing drivers to abandon their cars. University officials said there didn't appear to be significant damage on campus, and it was using its student recreation center as a shelter.
Maddox said the authorities were having trouble communicating, and 1,400 National Guard soldiers were being deployed around the state.
Brian Sanders, the manager of an oil change shop, brought his daughters to DCH Regional Medical Center because he felt they'd be safe there. He said his business had been flattened. "I can't believe we walked away," he said.
Storms struck Birmingham earlier in the day, felling numerous trees that impeded emergency services and those trying to escape. Jefferson County reported 11 deaths by late on Wednesday; another area hit hard was Walker County, with eight deaths.
In Huntsville, meteorologists found themselves in the path of tornado and had to evacuate the National Weather Service office.
In Mississippi, a Louisiana police officer was killed on Wednesday morning when a towering sweetgum tree fell onto his tent as he shielded his young daughter with his body, said Kim Korthuis, a supervisor with the National Park Service. The girl was unhurt.
Also in Mississippi, a man was crushed in his mobile home when a tree fell during the storm, a truck driver died after hitting a downed tree on a state highway and a member of a county road crew was killed when he was struck by a tree they were removing.
By late on Wednesday the death toll had increased to 11 for the day, according to Mississippi Emergency Management Association spokesman Jeff Rent. The governor also made an emergency declaration for much of the state.
Storms killed two in Georgia and one person in Tennessee on Wednesday. Aside from the 39 deaths on Wednesday, one person was killed by the same storm system late the previous night in Arkansas.
In eastern Tennessee, a woman was killed by falling trees in her trailer in Chattanooga. Just outside the city in Tiftonia, what appeared to be a tornado also struck at the base of the tourist peak Lookout Mountain.
Tops were snapped off trees and insulation and metal roof panels littered the ground. Police officers walked down the street, spray-painting symbols on houses they had checked for people who might be inside.