TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The mayor of an Alabama city hit hard by a tornado says at least 15 people have died there, bringing the death toll from severe weather to 64 around the South. In all, 50 people died in Wednesday’s storms in Alabama.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox said sections of the city have been destroyed and its infrastructure has been decimated.
Storms also killed 11 in Mississippi, two in Georgia and one in Tennessee.
A hospital in Tuscaloosa said its emergency room had admitted at least 100 people. News footage showed paramedics lifting a child out of a flattened home, with many buildings in the city of more than 83,000 also reduced to rubble.
The storm system spread destruction Tuesday night and Wednesday from Texas to Georgia. The system was forecast to hit the Carolinas next and then move further northeast.
Around Tuscaloosa, traffic was snarled Wed nesday night by downed trees and power lines, and some drivers abandoned their cars in medians. University of Alabama officials said there didn’t appear to be significant damage on campus, and it was opening its student recreation center as a shelter.
Brian Sanders, manager of an oil-change shop, brought his daughters to DCH Regional Medical Center because he felt they would be safe there. He said his business had been leveled.
“I can’t believe we walked away,” he said.
Storms had struck Birmingham earlier in the day, felling numerous trees that impeded emergency responders and those trying to leave hard- hit areas. In Huntsville, meteorologists found themselves in the path of a tornado and had to evacuate the National Weather Service office.
In Choctaw County, Miss., a Louisiana police officer camping with his daughter was killed Wednesday morning when a tree fell onto his tent as he shielded his daughter with his body, said Kim Korthuis, a supervisor with the National Park Service. The 9-year-old girl wasn’t hurt.
Also in Mississippi, a man was crushed in his mobile home by a falling tree; a truck driver died after hitting a downed tree on a highway; and a member of a county road crew was killed when he was struck by a tree the crew was removing.
