Tornadoes, Storms Rip South, at Least 228 Dead

Tornadoes and violent storms ripped through seven southern U.S. states, killing at least 228 people as they flattened neighborhoods, flipped cars and toppled trees and power lines.

In the deadliest series of tornadoes in nearly four decades in the United States, 131 people were killed in Alabama, the worst-hit state which suffered “massive destruction of property,” Governor Robert Bentley said Thursday.

“We expect that number to rise,” Bentley said in a conference call with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate.

The clusters of powerful tornadoes — more than 160 in total — combined with storms to cut a swathe of destruction heading from west to east over several days.

In preliminary estimates, other state officials reported 32 killed in Mississippi, 30 in Tennessee, 11 in Arkansas, 14 in Georgia, eight in Virginia and two in Louisiana.

The Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama was expected to be shut for days, possibly weeks, as workers repaired damaged transmission lines.

But the backup systems worked as intended to prevent a partial meltdown like the nuclear disaster in Japan.

“The reactors will remain shut until we have restored the reliability of the transmission system,” said Ray Golden, spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which owns the 3,274-megawatt plant.

Up to 1 million people in Alabama were left without power.

FEMA chief Fugate said it is too early for his agency to give a confirmed overall death toll and authorities are concentrating on rescue and recovery.

Some of the worst devastation occurred Wednesday in Alabama, where a massive mile-wide tornado slammed into Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, killing at least 37 people including some students.

“It sounded like a chain-saw. You could hear the debris hitting things. All I have left is a few clothes and tools that were too heavy for the storm to pick up. It doesn’t seem real,” said student Steve Niven, 24.

“I can buy new things but you cannot replace the people. I feel sorry for those who lost loved ones,” Niven told Reuters.

Obama Orders Aid

Tornadoes are a regular feature of life in the U.S. South and Midwest, but they are rarely so devastating.

U.S. President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for Alabama and ordered federal aid.

“Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation and (we) stand ready to continue to help the people of Alabama,” he said in a Twitter message Thursday.

Governor Bentley also declared a state of emergency in Alabama and said he was deploying 2,000 National Guardsman. Governors in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee also declared states of emergency.

“We’re in a search-and-rescue mode. We’re making sure that those that may be out there that are trapped, that we have not found, we are trying to find them,” Bentley told CNN.

“There has been massive devastation across northern Alabama. These long-track tornadoes really tear up the landscape as well as homes,” he said. Shops, shopping malls, drug stores, gas stations and dry cleaners were all flattened in one section of Tuscaloosa, a town of around 95,000 in the west-central part of Alabama.

Wednesday was the deadliest day of tornadoes in the United States since 310 people lost their lives on April 3, 1974, weather forecasters said.

“We have never experienced such a major weather event in our history,” said the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the Browns Ferry nuclear plant and provides electricity to 9 million people in seven states.

“Everybody says it (a tornado) sounds like a train and I started to hear the train,” Anthony Foote, a resident of Tuscaloosa whose house was badly damaged, told Reuters. “I ran and jumped into the tub and the house started shaking. Then glass started shattering.”

The campus of the University of Alabama, home of the famous Crimson Tide Football team, was not badly damaged but some students were killed off campus, Bentley said.

Damage in Alabama was spread over a wide area through the north and central part of the state, said Jennifer Ardis, Bentley’s press secretary.

Authorities in Alabama and Mississippi said they expect the death toll to rise as emergency workers attempt rescues and recovery in the storm’s wake.