Friday, April 29, 2011

AMERICA - Worst Outbreak of Tornadoes in Nearly 40yrs

"Birmingham Police Chief: Alabamians in Shock, Despair After Major Storm"
PBS Newshour 4/28/2011

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.



"South Assesses the Toll After a Deadly Barrage of Tornadoes" by CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and KIM SEVERSON, New York Times 4/28/2011

Excerpt

A day after enduring a terrifying bombardment of storms that killed hundreds across the South and spawned tornadoes that razed neighborhoods and even entire towns, people from Texas to Virginia to Georgia searched through rubble for survivors on Thursday and tried to reclaim their own lives.

At least 285 people across six states died in the storms, with more than half — 195 people — in Alabama. This college town, the home of the University of Alabama, has in some places been shorn to the slab, and accounts for at least 36 of those deaths.

Thousands have been injured, and untold more have been left homeless, hauling their belongings in garbage bags or rooting through disgorged piles of wood and siding to find anything salvageable.

While Alabama was hit the hardest, the storm spared few states across the South. Thirty-four people were reported dead in Tennessee, 33 in Mississippi, 15 in Georgia, 7 in Virginia and one in Kentucky. With search and rescue crews still climbing through debris and making their way down tree-strewn country roads, the toll is expected to rise.

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