U.S. storm toll rises to 297

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U.S. storm toll rises to 297

CBC News

Posted: Apr 29, 2011 12:57 AM ET

Last Updated: Apr 29, 2011 12:57 AM ET

At least 297 people were killed across six states — more than two-thirds of them

in Alabama — as America's deadliest tornado outbreak in almost four decades

pulverized entire neighbourhoods.

Firefighters searched one splintered pile after another for survivors Thursday,

combing the remains of houses and neighbourhoods of large large cities that bore

the one kilometre-wide scars the twisters left behind.

The death toll from Wednesday's storms seems out of a bygone era, before Doppler

radar and pinpoint satellite forecasts were around to warn communities of severe

weather. Residents were told the tornadoes were coming up to 24 minutes ahead of

time, but they were just too wide, too powerful and too locked onto populated

areas to avoid a horrifying body count.

" These were the most intense super-cell thunderstorms that I think anybody who

was out there forecasting has ever seen, " said meteorologist Greg Carbin at the

National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

" If you experienced a direct hit from one of these, you'd have to be in a

reinforced room, storm shelter or underground " to survive, Carbin said.

The storms seemed to hug the interstate highways as they barrelled along like

runaway trucks, obliterating neighbourhoods or even entire towns from Tuscaloosa

to Virginia. One family rode out the disaster in the basement of a funeral home,

another by huddling in a tanning bed.

In Concord, Ala., a small town outside Birmingham that was ravaged by a tornado,

Randy Guyton's family got a phone call from a friend warning them to take cover.

They rushed to the basement garage, piled into their car and listened to the

roar as the twister devoured the house in seconds. Afterward, they saw daylight

through the shards of their home and scrambled out.

" The whole house caved in on top of that car, " he said. " Other than my boy

screaming to the Lord to save us, being in that car is what saved us. "

Worst damage in Tuscaloosa

Alabama Gov. Bentley said his state had confirmed 210 deaths. There were

33 deaths in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia and

one in Kentucky. Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured — 600 in

Tuscaloosa alone.

Some of the worst damage was in Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is

home to the University of Alabama. The storms destroyed the city's emergency

management centre, so the school's -Denny Stadium was turned into a

makeshift one. School officials said two students were killed, though they did

not say how they died. Finals were cancelled and commencement was postponed.

A tower-mounted news camera there captured images of an astonishingly thick,

powerful tornado flinging debris as it levelledneighbourhoods.

Wider than normal

That twister and others Wednesday were several times more severe than a typical

tornado, which is hundreds of yards wide, has winds around 160 kilometres per

hour and stays on the ground for a few miles, said research meteorologist Harold

at the Storm Prediction Center.

" There's a pretty good chance some of these were a mile wide, on the ground for

tens of miles and had wind speeds over 200 mph (320 km/h), " he said.

The loss of life is the greatest from an outbreak of U.S. tornadoes since April

1974, when 329 people were killed by a storm that swept across 13 Southern and

Midwestern states.

said the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa could be an EF5 -- the strongest

category of tornado, with winds of more than 322 km/h - and was at least the

second-highest category, an EF4.