Tornado doomsday: 150 twisters drop from the skies- 329 dead

 

April 27, 2011–TUSCALOOSA, Ala.(AP) — The death toll from severe storms that punished five Southern U.S. states jumped to a staggering 178 after Alabama canvassed its hard-hit counties for a new tally of lives lost. Alabama’s state emergency management agency said early Thursday it had confirmed 128 deaths, up from at least 61 earlier. “We expect that toll, unfortunately, to rise,” Gov. Robert Bentley told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Mississippi officials reported 32 dead in that state and Tennessee raised its report to six from one. Another 11 have been killed in Georgia and one in Virginia. The fierce storms Wednesday spawned tornadoes and winds that wiped out homes and businesses, forced a nuclear power plant to use backup generators and even prompted the evacuation of a National Weather Service office. The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports around the regions, including 66 in Alabama and 38 in Mississippi. One of the hardest-hit areas Wednesday was Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 and home to the University of Alabama. The city’s police and other emergency services were devastated, the mayor said, and at least 15 people were killed and about 100 were in a single hospital. A massive tornado, caught on video by a news camera on a tower, barreled through the city late Wednesday afternoon, leveling it. By nightfall, the city was dark. Roads were impassable. Signs were blown down in front of restaurants, businesses were unrecognizable and sirens wailed off and on. Elsewhere, 11 people were killed in Mississippi, another 11 people were reported dead in Georgia and one person died each in Tennessee and Virginia. The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out. –Associated Press

Update: A rare mix of factors combined to cause widespread severe weather and dozens of reported tornadoes across the southern United States Wednesday, experts said. The National Weather Service had already received more than 150 reports of tornadoes by Wednesday night, and that number appeared to be climbing rapidly. “This could be one of the most devastating tornado outbreaks in the nation’s history by the time it’s over,” CNN Meteorologist Sean Morris said. -CNN