The ferocious storm Wednesday and Thursday caused deaths and damage across the South, East.
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ALABAMA
Tuscaloosa
At least 32 people were killed Wednesday and hundreds were injured as a massive tornado leveled much of the city that is home of the University of Alabama, where exams were canceled and graduation delayed. The death toll rose throughout the day Thursday as searchers picked through the sprawling rubble.
In the Alberta City neighborhood, muffled screams could be heard from a pile of debris that used to be an apartment complex. Firefighters, police officers and residents used chain saws and floor jacks to clear the walls that had fallen on an Alabama student, trapping her beneath several feet of debris.
At the storm-battered Full Moon Barbecue, a Tuscaloosa landmark, employee Carolyn Forkner was still wearing a drive-through headset as she surveyed the wreckage.
“This is like a nightmare. I just want to wake up,” Forkner said.
With the city’s water plant disabled, Mayor Walt Maddox asked residents to limit water use.
“Our infrastructure has been decimated,” Maddox said.
A call went out for volunteers to help in a cleanup he said could take months.
“This is going to be a very long process,” Maddox said. “There will be areas of the city that will be hurting for a very long time.”
Tuscaloosa News
Birmingham
The tornado that flattened Tuscaloosa also hammered the western suburbs of Alabama’s largest city.
“It happened so fast it was unbelievable,” said Jerry Stewart, a 63-year-old retired firefighter who was picking through the remains of his son’s wrecked home in Pleasant Grove. “They said the storm was in Tuscaloosa and it would be here in 15 minutes. And before I knew it, it was here.”
He and his wife, their daughter and two grandchildren survived by hiding under their front porch. Two friends down the street who did the same weren’t so lucky — Stewart said he pulled out their bodies after their home was ripped off its foundation.
In the small community of Concord, at least eight people died, said Mark Kelly, spokesman for the Jefferson County Emergency Management Office.
Kelly spoke from Pratt City, where he said the fire station was damaged and homes had been flattened. More than 100 police officers and firefighters, most of whom had been up all night, were searching for bodies and survivors.
As for the death toll, Kelly said, “We certainly expect that number to go up.”
Associated Press
Limestone County
Deprived of power as the storm downed electric lines, the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant between Decatur and Athens fell back on diesel backup generators Wednesday, setting off an automatic shutdown.
Bill McCollum, the chief operating officer of the Tennessee Valley Authority, said it may be weeks before power can be restored to all of the 300,000 customers who rely on the plant. But McCollum said the diesel engines kept the plant’s cooling system operating, maintaining the safety of the reactors and spent fuel pools. Coolant failure at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan after the March tsunami resulted in a partial meltdown.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
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MISSISSIPPI
Clarke County
Four people were reported dead after they gathered with 15 others in the largest mobile home in a trailer park in Clarke County near the Alabama line Wednesday, apparently hoping its size would help protect them from the oncoming storm.
“It was awful; it looked like a bomb went off,” Clarke County Sheriff Todd Kemp said.
In nearby Philadelphia, the Neshoba Democrat published an extra edition Thursday with single-word headline in huge, block capital letters topping its front page: DEVASTATION.?Meridian Star. Neshoba Democrat
Smithville
In Monroe County, a rural area south of Tupelo, 13 people were killed Wednesday and more than 40 injured, said Greg Flynn, a spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
Smithville, a town of about 900 near Tupelo, was hit particularly hard, Flynn said. The police station, post office, City Hall, an industrial park and a grocery store were among dozens of buildings ripped apart.
An inverted Chevy truck lay on the roof of the Smithville Baptist Church. The church bus lay on its side in a nearby ditch.
Associated Press, Northeast Mississippi Daily News
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ARKANSAS
Craighead and Mississippi counties
Authorities tracked a possible tornado Wednesday that tossed wreckage of a home onto a highway and toppled trees. There were no injuries, however — welcome news after storms Monday and Tuesday killed at least 11 people in the state.
Gov. Mike Beebe, who toured the tornado-damaged areas, said he was now concerned about the flooding brought on by days of rainfall.
“With the tornadoes, you know what you’ve got the next day,” he said. “With the floods, we won’t know what we’re dealing with ... until the water recedes.”
Arkansas Democrat
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VIRGINIA
Glade Spring
At least seven people were killed when the storm hit an I-81 truck stop and several mobile homes and houses early Thursday. Another 50 people were injured, said Laura Southard, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Virginia State Police said the chaos began with a report of a tree falling on a tractor-trailer.
Within minutes, police were inundated with calls about overturned and jackknifed tractor-trailers, downed power lines and trees and severely damaged houses, police said.
Associated Press, Richmond Times-Dispatch
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TENNESSEE
Apison
About 150 volunteers were assisting authorities searching the hard-hit community near Chattanooga, where eight people were killed Wednesday. Amy Maxwell, Hamilton County public information officer, said more than 150 area residents were treated for injuries.
Just to the north in Bradley County, nine people died.
Associated Press
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KENTUCKY
Murray
Kentucky suffered a storm-related death when an off-duty police officer’s car hit a pool of rainwater in a roadway Wednesday and lost traction, striking a utility pole. The officer was pronounced dead at the scene.
Murray Ledger & Times
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INDIANA
Dubois County
State officials said they rescued three people from cars trapped on flooded roadways as the storm system dumped more rain Thursday on parts of Indiana already bracing for floods. Troopers temporarily closed a section of I-65 in southern Indiana after high winds sent trees smashing onto vehicles. Gusts of up to 50 mph also battered much of the Indianapolis area.
Associated Press
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OHIO
New Carlisle
A tornado touched down Wednesday morning, ripping siding off a former furniture store, but no injuries were reported. The storm added to near-record April rainfall for the area.
Dayton Daily News
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NEW YORK
Apalachin
The storm poured water onto already saturated ground early Thursday, flooding roads and basements, shuttering schools and downing tress and power lines in this impoverished upstate community.
Resident Marie Tyler said one neighbor watched water run through one door of her house and out the other, and now faces having to rebuild.
“Nobody around here has the money to take care of things like that,” Tyler said.
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
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NORTH CAROLINA
Madison County
Three houses near the Tennessee line were destroyed late Wednesday by what witnesses said looked like a twister touching down, and a fourth residence lost a number of outbuildings, said County Manager Steve Garrison.
In Hot Springs, a common overnight stop for travelers walking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, hikers were trickling out of the mountains Thursday with tales of rough conditions in the higher elevations.
“The hikers said there was a lot of wind and it scared them,” said Dan Gallagher of Bluff Mountain Outfitters. “They said they just hunkered down in the corner of their shelters as best they could
Associated Press
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FLORIDA
Marianna
Mangled aircraft littered the Marianna Municipal Airport grounds Thursday and debris from fallen trees and damaged structures lay in the streets as the result of two early morning tornadoes, according to Jackson County Emergency Management Director Rodney Andreasen.
Six or seven planes and a helicopter were destroyed or heavily damaged, Andreasen said. Airport structures and at least two houses were also damaged, he said.
Jackson County Floridan
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