Death toll passes 220 as storms ravage southern US

TORNADOES and thunderstorms have carved a trail of destruction across the southern US, killing over 220 people in one of the country’s worst weather disasters in years, officials said.

The severe weather killed 131 people in the state of Alabama alone on Wednesday, authorities said, and President Barack Obama said Washington would be rushing assistance to the battered southeastern state.

States of emergency were declared in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Oklahoma, and governors called out the National Guard to help with rescue and cleanup operations.

In all, state officials reported at least 227 people dead, but as the residents and emergency workers began to mop up and assess the damage the toll was likely to rise.

The National Weather Service had preliminary reports of more than 300 tornados since storms began last Friday, including more than 130 on Wednesday alone.

Alabama was especially badly hit, caught by two lines of storms and an evening tornado that tore through the city of Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama.

Tuscaloosa mayor Walter Maddox said the tornado “obliterated blocks and blocks” of his city, leaving 36 people dead there.

“Infrastructure has been absolutely devastated,” he said. “When you look at this path of destruction, likely five to seven miles long and half a mile to a mile wide, I don’t know how anyone survived.

“There are parts of this city I don’t recognise.”

A tornado also struck the city of Birmingham.

“This has been a very serious and deadly event that’s affected our state, and it’s not over yet,” Alabama governor Robert Bentley said.

Stunned Birmingham residents assessed the damage, some counting their blessings to still be alive, others distraught over the loss of their loved ones or homes.

Some property swept up by the killer twisters was found 50 miles away, as power was knocked out to many communities.

The Tuesday-Wednesday storms are believed to be the deadliest US natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina of 2005, and Accuweather.com said the tornados were the worst since 310 people were killed on April 3, 1974.

In Mississippi, the storm killed 32 people and caused damage in 50 of its 82 counties.

State officials reported at least 30 dead in Tennessee, 11 killed in Arkansas, 13 killed in Georgia, seven in Virginia, and another three killed in Missouri, with the overall toll likely to rise.

“Oh my God, our town is in pieces,” said Tim Holt, a clerk at a local hotel in Ringgold, Georgia. “We saw the funnel cloud coming and I ran into the bathroom with my wife and daughter.”

“It’s an 80% loss in our town,” he added.

Another major storm system is forecast to bring heavy rain and high winds tomorrow. There is a “high-risk” warning of tornados, hail, flash flooding and dangerous lightning for parts of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

And severe weather could also strike 21 states from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf Coast and across to the Atlantic, and tornados were reported as far east as Virginia and Maryland.