Southern US storm deaths near 200

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Tornado footage – courtesy Crimson Tide Production/University of Alabama

Tornadoes and storms in the south-eastern United States have killed at least 193 people, officials say.

In Alabama, the worst-hit state, 128 have died in recent days – including 15 killed by a tornado that devastated the city of Tuscaloosa.

Deaths and widespread devastation are also reported in Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia and Virginia.

A state of emergency has been declared in seven states, and federal aid money is being sent to Alabama.

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.

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

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

“Everybody says it [a tornado] sounds like a train and I started to hear the train,” Tuscaloosa resident Anthony Foote told Reuters news agency.

“I ran and jumped into the tub and the house started shaking. Then glass started shattering.”

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 four times that number.

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

A state of emergency has been declared in Alabama.

Northern and central parts of the state bore the brunt of the latest storms. Eleven people died in Jefferson County, home to Birmingham, Alabama’s largest city.

A shop-owner in Birmingham told AFP news agency that 30 homes near his store had been destroyed by a tornado on Wednesday.

Personal objects swept up by some twisters in the state have been found 50 miles (80km) away, AFP adds.

President Barack Obama said he had spoken to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and approved his request for emergency assistance, including search and rescue teams.

Mr Obama said on Wednesday night: “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.”

The storms forced the Tennessee Valley Authority – which provides electricity to nine million people in seven states – to close three nuclear reactors at a power plant in Alabama. Hundreds of thousands of homes have lost power as a result.

“We have never experienced such a major weather event in our history,” the Tennessee Valley Authority said in a statement.

States of emergency were also declared in Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Oklahoma, following the latest storms and tornadoes.

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.

At least 11 people have been killed in Georgia, 14 in Tennessee and eight in Virginia.

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

Storms have hit states across the southern US for weeks, and another major storm system is forecast to bring heavy rain in the coming days.

Send your pictures and videos to [email protected] or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7725 100 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

Read the terms and conditions