Courtesy: "Wall Street Journal", 29 April 2011
Tornadoes Leave a Trail of Devastation
The fast-moving funnel clouds destroyed homes and property across six states over two days. Twisters blew apart churches in the small rural town of Smithville, Miss., flattened homes in the tidy suburbs of Birmingham, Ala., smashed poultry barns, uprooted power poles and flung cars wildly about.
The region was "hit and hit and hit again," said Melissa McDonald of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
Alabama officials confirmed 204 deaths, and rescue crews were still searching for victims late Thursday. One of the hardest-hit areas was Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 93,000 people and home to the University of Alabama, where a tornado carved a roughly seven mile long one mile wide swath of destruction, sheering most homes trees and electric poles to eye level. By dusk on Thursday, a steady stream of residents were walking on University Blvd on the east side of town, wheeling suitcases and shopping carts with clothing, computers and family photographs. A smell of gas hung in the air.
In Coaling, Ala., firefighter Reginald Epps and his wife tried to gather their three boys—ages eight, six and four—to protect them as the storm approached their home. They got the two youngest, but before they were able to get R.J., the walls of their house were sucked outward and R.J. was swept out into the storm. The parents dropped on the floor, covering their two younger boys and praying. A few minutes later, R.J. walked back into what had been their house. "I went up into the air," the eight-year-old boy said.
Sarah Nafziger, an emergency-room physician in Birmingham, said she viewed the destruction during several ambulance rescue calls: "The first neighborhood I went to, I had to ask whether it was a neighborhood."
Federal authorities scrambled to organize a quick—and highly visible—response.
Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, spent Thursday touring Alabama. FEMA officials said a warehouse near Atlanta would start dispatching supplies—water, food packs, infant kits and tents—to disaster areas.
President Barack Obama planned to visit Tuscaloosa on Friday and meet with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, state and local officials and the families of victims, the White House said.
Thousands of National Guard troops were mobilized to begin cleanup, and church-based organizations such as the Mississippi Baptist Convention rushed tractor-trailers packed with kitchen equipment to hard-hit communities to prepare meals for the newly homeless.
Meanwhile, victims sought to cope not only with the enormity of the devastation, but with the mundane details of daily life: finding a working gas station to fill up their cars; a working phone to call frantic relatives; ice, bread and cigarettes.
This battered town in northeast Alabama, like much of the region, had no electricity. Long lines formed at the few gas stations with enough generator power to operate pumps. Residents greeted one another with urgent queries: "Who has fuel?" Driving to their home in nearby Sheffield, Ala., filmmakers Steve and Sheri Wiggins saw an eerie tableau: Rubble, wreckage and everywhere people standing outside and patiently waiting—for fuel, water, help.
"It was apocalyptic—something out of a 'Mad Max' movie," Mr. Wiggins said.
At the trauma center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, physicians treated scores of storm victims, many injured by falling debris. The hospital canceled all elective surgery and packed its intensive-care units with storm victims, including 43 suffering major trauma injuries, "much like we would see in motor-vehicle collisions," said Loring Rue, the chief of trauma surgery. "The severity of the injuries was remarkable to us."
While the South has seasonal tornadoes, the system that hit this week was unusual in its breadth and intensity. Tornadoes are formed when warm, moist air at lower elevations interacts with colder air higher up, producing major thunderstorms. "This was just a situation where everything fit into the right place, and it really took off," said James St. John, a research scientist in atmospheric sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Amateur videos and photos showed enormous funnel clouds—some light gray, some pitch black—churning across huge swaths of the countryside. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports throughout the South, including 66 in Alabama and 38 in Mississippi.
Many residents had advance warning of the storms. Forecasters had been predicting dangerous weather for days, and in many areas, tornado-warning sirens sounded. Authorities said the death toll was lower than it might have been because so many heeded those warnings and sought shelter.
Still, "it's very difficult to move everyone out when a tornado comes through that's a mile wide," Gov. Bentley said.
Other people said they were taken by surprise. Lou Weygand, who lives north of Birmingham in Fultondale, said she learned she was in peril only when her daughter text-messaged her: "Take cover. It's almost there."
Moments later, she saw what she described as "a big black wall." The tornado touched down a half-mile from her house.
In Tuscaloosa, police and emergency services were devastated, the mayor said. More than 100 patients were admitted to Tuscaloosa's DCH Medical Center for blunt trauma, fractures and "evulsions"—tissue torn off.
Mississippi reported 33 deaths. Other reported fatalities included 33 in Tennessee, 14 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky.
An Alabama nuclear power plant that lost power Wednesday evening as a result of the severe storms remained safely shut down on Thursday, the Tennessee Valley Authority said.
In Smithville, Miss., Brian Stevens said his house was "nothing but boards and bricks lying on the slab."
He said his youngest daughter, four-year-old Dailie, found a silver lining, saying, "That mean old twister tore up our house, so I'm going to have to get some new toys, daddy."
But there was little left of Smithville, population 857. "The town is gone," Mr. Stevens said. "It's gone. There's nothing."
—Cameron McWhirter,Ana Campoy, Angel Gonzalez, Ryan Tracy and Carol Lee contributed to this article.
....................
Note: The viewpoint expressed in this article is solely that of the writer / news outlet. "FATA Awareness Initiative" Team may not agree with the opinion presented.
....................
We Hope You find the info useful. Keep visiting this blog and remember to leave your feedback / comments / suggestions / requests / corrections.
With Regards,
"FATA Awareness Initiative" Team.
Tornadoes Leave a Trail of Devastation
Nearly 300 Die in Six Southern States as City Neighborhoods and Farm Towns Are Leveled; FEMA Mobilizes for Cleanup
By TIMOTHY W. MARTIN, THOMAS M. BURTON and STEPHANIE SIMON
FORT PAYNE, Ala.—Residents of Alabama, Mississippi and four other Southern states picked through their splintered communities Thursday as state and federal authorities mobilized to clean up and rebuild after scores of powerful tornadoes killed nearly 300 people in the most deadly storm cluster to hit the nation in 37 years.The fast-moving funnel clouds destroyed homes and property across six states over two days. Twisters blew apart churches in the small rural town of Smithville, Miss., flattened homes in the tidy suburbs of Birmingham, Ala., smashed poultry barns, uprooted power poles and flung cars wildly about.
The region was "hit and hit and hit again," said Melissa McDonald of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
Alabama officials confirmed 204 deaths, and rescue crews were still searching for victims late Thursday. One of the hardest-hit areas was Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 93,000 people and home to the University of Alabama, where a tornado carved a roughly seven mile long one mile wide swath of destruction, sheering most homes trees and electric poles to eye level. By dusk on Thursday, a steady stream of residents were walking on University Blvd on the east side of town, wheeling suitcases and shopping carts with clothing, computers and family photographs. A smell of gas hung in the air.
In Coaling, Ala., firefighter Reginald Epps and his wife tried to gather their three boys—ages eight, six and four—to protect them as the storm approached their home. They got the two youngest, but before they were able to get R.J., the walls of their house were sucked outward and R.J. was swept out into the storm. The parents dropped on the floor, covering their two younger boys and praying. A few minutes later, R.J. walked back into what had been their house. "I went up into the air," the eight-year-old boy said.
Storm Damage
Storms Wreak Havoc
C. Todd Sherman/ The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal/Associated Press
![[SB10001424052748704463804576290602228544420]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-NR580_0428us_D_20110428081609.jpg)
An emergency responder combed through the wreckage of a destroyed home after a tornado touched down in Smithville, Miss., Wednesday.
Sarah Nafziger, an emergency-room physician in Birmingham, said she viewed the destruction during several ambulance rescue calls: "The first neighborhood I went to, I had to ask whether it was a neighborhood."
Federal authorities scrambled to organize a quick—and highly visible—response.
Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, spent Thursday touring Alabama. FEMA officials said a warehouse near Atlanta would start dispatching supplies—water, food packs, infant kits and tents—to disaster areas.
President Barack Obama planned to visit Tuscaloosa on Friday and meet with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, state and local officials and the families of victims, the White House said.
Thousands of National Guard troops were mobilized to begin cleanup, and church-based organizations such as the Mississippi Baptist Convention rushed tractor-trailers packed with kitchen equipment to hard-hit communities to prepare meals for the newly homeless.
Meanwhile, victims sought to cope not only with the enormity of the devastation, but with the mundane details of daily life: finding a working gas station to fill up their cars; a working phone to call frantic relatives; ice, bread and cigarettes.
This battered town in northeast Alabama, like much of the region, had no electricity. Long lines formed at the few gas stations with enough generator power to operate pumps. Residents greeted one another with urgent queries: "Who has fuel?" Driving to their home in nearby Sheffield, Ala., filmmakers Steve and Sheri Wiggins saw an eerie tableau: Rubble, wreckage and everywhere people standing outside and patiently waiting—for fuel, water, help.
"It was apocalyptic—something out of a 'Mad Max' movie," Mr. Wiggins said.
At the trauma center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, physicians treated scores of storm victims, many injured by falling debris. The hospital canceled all elective surgery and packed its intensive-care units with storm victims, including 43 suffering major trauma injuries, "much like we would see in motor-vehicle collisions," said Loring Rue, the chief of trauma surgery. "The severity of the injuries was remarkable to us."
While the South has seasonal tornadoes, the system that hit this week was unusual in its breadth and intensity. Tornadoes are formed when warm, moist air at lower elevations interacts with colder air higher up, producing major thunderstorms. "This was just a situation where everything fit into the right place, and it really took off," said James St. John, a research scientist in atmospheric sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Amateur videos and photos showed enormous funnel clouds—some light gray, some pitch black—churning across huge swaths of the countryside. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports throughout the South, including 66 in Alabama and 38 in Mississippi.
Many residents had advance warning of the storms. Forecasters had been predicting dangerous weather for days, and in many areas, tornado-warning sirens sounded. Authorities said the death toll was lower than it might have been because so many heeded those warnings and sought shelter.
Still, "it's very difficult to move everyone out when a tornado comes through that's a mile wide," Gov. Bentley said.
Other people said they were taken by surprise. Lou Weygand, who lives north of Birmingham in Fultondale, said she learned she was in peril only when her daughter text-messaged her: "Take cover. It's almost there."
Moments later, she saw what she described as "a big black wall." The tornado touched down a half-mile from her house.
In Tuscaloosa, police and emergency services were devastated, the mayor said. More than 100 patients were admitted to Tuscaloosa's DCH Medical Center for blunt trauma, fractures and "evulsions"—tissue torn off.
Mississippi reported 33 deaths. Other reported fatalities included 33 in Tennessee, 14 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky.
An Alabama nuclear power plant that lost power Wednesday evening as a result of the severe storms remained safely shut down on Thursday, the Tennessee Valley Authority said.
In Smithville, Miss., Brian Stevens said his house was "nothing but boards and bricks lying on the slab."
He said his youngest daughter, four-year-old Dailie, found a silver lining, saying, "That mean old twister tore up our house, so I'm going to have to get some new toys, daddy."
But there was little left of Smithville, population 857. "The town is gone," Mr. Stevens said. "It's gone. There's nothing."
—Cameron McWhirter,Ana Campoy, Angel Gonzalez, Ryan Tracy and Carol Lee contributed to this article.
....................
Note: The viewpoint expressed in this article is solely that of the writer / news outlet. "FATA Awareness Initiative" Team may not agree with the opinion presented.
....................
We Hope You find the info useful. Keep visiting this blog and remember to leave your feedback / comments / suggestions / requests / corrections.
With Regards,
"FATA Awareness Initiative" Team.
No comments:
Post a Comment