Bush to visit areas hit by killer tornadoes

US President George Bush will tomorrow visit areas hit by a tornadoes that have killed at least 20 people in several American states, including eight students at an Alabama high school.

The White House said Bush would make two stops tomorrow, but his destinations were still being worked out with governors in the affected states.

The burst of tornadoes was part of a line of thunderstorms and snowstorms that stretched from Minnesota to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

Authorities blamed tornadoes for the deaths of a 7-year-old girl in Missouri, 10 people in Alabama and nine in Georgia, and twisters also damaged homes in Kansas.

In Alabama eight students were killed when a tornado struck Enterprise High School, blowing out the walls and collapsing part of the roof, Mayor Kenneth Boswell said today.

They were all in one wing of the school that took a direct hit, he said.

“It was in a split second that we sat down and started to cover ourselves before the storm hit,” said 17-year-old Kira Simpson, who lost four friends to the storm.

“Glass was breaking. It was loud. It’s like a bad dream. I have to keep reminding myself that it actually happened.”

As the massive storm system swept into Georgia, another tornado apparently touched down near the Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, 117 miles south of Atlanta, killing at least two people and injuring an undetermined number of others, said Buzz Weiss of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

At least 42 patients were evacuated to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Putney spokeswoman Jackie Ryan said.

Six more people were killed in the town of Newton, Georgia, including a child, and several homes were destroyed, Fire Chief Andy Belinc said.

Early today, the storm was pelting the Carolinas with heavy rain, causing power outages, street flooding, and a tornado warning was posted through late morning for the North Carolina coast.

In all, the National Weather Service received 31 reports of tornadoes Thursday from Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, plus a report Friday of a waterspout near Cartaret, North Carolina.

In South Carolina, the Coast Guard prepared to search for six people on a small boat who sent a distress call during the storm saying they were taking on water off the coast.

At Enterprise High School, officials had been watching the storm Thursday as it swept through southern Missouri and headed into Alabama.

The students were preparing to leave for the day when the sirens started up and the lights went out.

Teacher Grannison Wagstaff was with them and said: ‘Here it comes. Hit the deck', I turned around and I could actually see the tornado coming toward me.”

As the students scrambled for shelter, a section of roof and a wall near 17-year-old Erin Garcia collapsed on her classmates.

“I was just sitting there praying the whole time,” Garcia said. “It sounded like a bunch of people trying to beat the wall down. People didn’t know where to go. They were trying to lead us out of the building.

“I kept seeing people with blood on their faces.”

Outside, debris from the school was strewn around the neighbourhood, where cars were flipped or tossed atop each other.

The mayor said officials had yet to determine where students in the school of about 2,000 would attend classes for the rest of the year.

At least one other person was killed in Enterprise, a city of about 23,000 some 75 miles south of Montgomery.

Another died across the state in rural Millers Ferry, where trailer homes were flipped and trees toppled, officials said.

In Sumter County, Georgia, home of former President Jimmy Carter, the main hospital received some storm damage and there were two fatalities and an undetermined number of injuries, Weiss said.

Officials were not sure whether the injured and the dead were inside the hospital when it struck, he said.

Farther north, a tornado killed a man in a mobile home in Taylor County, county Emergency Management Agency Director Gary Lowe said.

Governer Sonny Perdue flew by helicopter to damaged areas and issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency in several counties.