USA: Tornadoes kill at least 19 in U.S., most who were taking shelter in an Alabama high school

Several tornadoes ripped across the Southern and Midwestern United States on Thursday leaving at least 11 people dead in their wake and injuring scores. Many of the victims had taken shelter in a high school that collapsed in southern Alabama. Tornadoes ripped across the Southern and Midwestern United States on Thursday (March 1) and killed at least 11 people, many of whom had been taking shelter in a high school that collapsed in southern Alabama. Five people died when the school building was torn open by the twister in the southern Alabama town of Enterprise, according to the state Emergency Management Agency. The agency had said earlier that 17 people had died in the town, but later lowered the statewide toll to seven, blaming initial miscommunication among officials. The agency said rescue workers were still moving debris to search for survivors as night fell. One student pulled two dead little girls out of the school building. "I went inside the third hall where they said the hall collapsed. I pulled out 2 dead little girls. It was very disturbing and I don't feel right right now," said Joe St. Clair, a high school student at Enterprise High School. Another student was just glad parts of the structure had held. "The tornado came through and the roof came down on us. Luckily it was built out of cinder blocks, so the walls held up," said Caleb Westley. In Georgia, storms that swept through the southwestern part of the state killed at least three people and caused an unknown number of injuries, said Buzz Weiss, spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. Two were killed in Americus, Georgia, when the Sumter Regional Hospital was hit by an apparent tornado. Weiss said it wasn't known whether the two were patients. The third fatality was in Taylor County, which is just a bit north of Americus, Weiss added. In the Missouri town of Caulfield, a tornado killed a girl in a mobile home, damaging six other homes and two gasoline stations, officials said. Television news footage showed helicopters landing on the football field near wreckage of the school in Enterprise, while ambulances came and went. The shredded building was surrounded by broken trees and overturned cars. Emergency officials told local television that at least one teacher was among those killed at the school. CNN quoted an eyewitness as saying he carried the bodies of two young girls out of the building. U.S. President George W. Bush, who earlier toured New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to assess the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, called the Alabama and Missouri governors to extend condolences and offer aid, the White House said. Alabama state officials sent search and rescue teams, ambulances, generators and emergency lights to Enterprise to aid the search for survivors. Phone service and electricity were out through much of the area. Doctors treated more than 50 people for lacerations, broken bones and other injuries, hospital CEO Jeff Brannon said. Most of them were hurt at the school. Hospital workers had rushed to move patients away from the windows as sirens screamed out a warning moments before a dark funnel cloud roared past. Hospital windows burst and cars were pummeled in the hospital parking lot, Brannon said. Parts of several Midwestern states and regions as far south as the Gulf Coast to the Florida Panhandle had been under tornado watches or warnings most of the day. In Chicago, more than 400 flights were canceled at O'Hare International Airport as gusty storms and fog rolled in. Thursday's storms came just a month after a tornado killed about 20 people in central Florida

ITN Source | March 2, 2007

Tags:. .patients. .sent. .electricity. .lowered. .hurt