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.