Tornadoes cut violent path across U.S. leaving trail of destruction and 38 dead

March 3, 2012 – HENRYVILLE, Ind.— The death toll from the tornadoes that slammed through the Midwest and Southeast on Friday and early Saturday rose to at least 32 as a second wave of storms hit southern states overnight. In Alabama, one person was confirmed dead in the east-central county of Tallapoosa as more tornadoes touched down overnight, state authorities said. Storms also crossed over parts of neighboring Georgia overnight, but there was only one reported injury and no fatalities as of Saturday morning. Tornado watches remained in effect for parts of Georgia, Alabama and Florida on Saturday morning. In Indiana, where 14 people were killed by Friday’s storms, crews worked through the night to clear roads and prepare for rescue efforts Saturday after a tornado gashed through the town of Henryville on Friday, destroying the high school and tossing a school bus into a local restaurant. A path of carnage extended from Interstate 65 through Henryville Junior/Senior High School, where the tornado wrapped six cars into gnarled steel beams draped with insulation. In the parking lot, two school buses were totaled amid scattered bricks, notebooks and chairs. Planks of wood speared the front grill of a Hyundai Elantra. Kevin Harned, head meteorologist at local television station WAVE 3, said he always wants viewers to take tornado predictions seriously, “but this time I said everything I could to be clear that they needed to take cover.” The storms also wreaked havoc on farmland and a state forest. “A bunch of farms are totally destroyed,” Mr. Adams said. “And they had to destroy several horses because they were so badly injured.” Spokesman Jet Quillen of the Indiana Joint Information Center said the dead included four in Jefferson County and three in Scott County, the Associated Press reported. Authorities also reported two deaths in Ripley County and one in Henryville. –WSJ

contribution by Tim