Alabama storm deaths jump to 128

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Tornado footage – courtesy Crimson Tide Production/University of Alabama

Tornadoes and storms that have been battering the southern US killed at least 128 people on Wednesday in Alabama alone, state officials say.

One of the hardest-hit cities was Tuscaloosa, where at least 15 people died when a massive tornado struck.

With deaths also in Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi, at least 172 people in total have been killed in recent days.

States of emergency have been declared in seven states, and federal aid money is being sent to Alabama.

One meteorologist described the tornado that devastated Tuscaloosa on Wednesday as possibly the “worst in Alabama’s history”.

The US National Weather Service has preliminary reports of nearly 300 tornadoes since the storm began on Friday, including more than 130 on Wednesday alone.

The current storm system is forecast to hit North and South Carolina before making its way further north-east.

Reduced to rubble

Tuscaloosa – a city of more than 83,000 and home to the University of Alabama – was hit by the huge tornado in the early evening on Wednesday.

A grocery store manager in the city described how he moved his customers to the back of the shop the moment it hit.

“The power went out, the building started shaking, the windows were shaking, and parts of the roof was flying off the building,” Mike Honeysutt said, as he stood amidst the debris of his wrecked shop.

“The windows came in at the front, and then the wind started blowing stuff off of the shelves, and then it passed on through after about 15-20 seconds.”

By nightfall, the city was dark, with roads impassable, businesses unrecognisable, sirens wailing off and on, and debris littering the streets and pavements, the Associated Press reports.

The city’s hospital said its emergency room had admitted about 100 people, but treated around 400.

Mayor Walter Maddox told reporters the city faced “massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time”, and said he expected the death toll to rise.

Falling trees

The damage from the tornado that struck near Tuscaloosa was made worse by earlier storms, which allowed the new system to uproot entire trees out of loose, wet mud, Michael Sznajderman, a spokesman for the Alabama Power Company, told the New York Times newspaper.

He added that at least 335,000 customers were without power in the region, with more storms on the way.

“The number of outages could be as high as what we saw with Hurricane Ivan or Hurricane Katrina,” Mr Sznajderman told the newspaper.

The governors of Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee have all declared a state of emergency as a result of the newest round of heavy winds, rains and tornadoes.

President Obama’s declared a state of emergency for Alabama, releasing federal aid money.

“We will continue to monitor these severe storms across the country and stand ready to continue to help the people of Alabama and all citizens affected by these storms,” Mr Obama said in a statement on Wednesday night.

Mississippi reported 32 deaths on Tuesday and Wednesday – including that of a police officer who shielded his nine-year-old daughter from a falling tree while on a camping holiday. The girl escaped unhurt.

A woman was also killed in eastern Tennessee when trees fell on her trailer home in Chattanooga.

At least 11 people are reported to have been killed in Georgia.

Storm systems have hit states across the southern US for weeks.

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