Over 250 killed as tornadoes ravage US

Tornadoes and storms carved a trail of “catastrophic” destruction across the southern United States, killing over 250 people in the worst US weather disaster in years, officials said yesterday.

Shocked residents of cities and towns in more half a dozen states crippled by the ferocious spring storms picked through the remains of their destroyed homes, businesses, schools and churches, in surreal scenes of devastation more common to war zones and massive earthquakes.

The severe weather killed 162 people on Wednesday in Alabama alone, authorities said, and the White House announced that President Barack Obama is travelling to the state today for a first-hand look at the devastation.

Mr Obama had earlier said Washington was rushing federal assistance to the battered state along the Gulf Coast.

Emergencies were declared in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee, and governors called out the National Guard – including 2,000 troops in hardest hit Alabama – to help with rescue and cleanup operations.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said, who declared a major disaster for the state and estimated that up to a million in his state were without power.

In the region, officials reported at least 258 people dead, but as the residents and emergency workers began to mop up and assess the damage the toll was likely to rise.

“In fact, we’re sure it will,” Mr Bentley said, echoing concerns of officials across several states in what is being described as the worst US tornadoes since 310 people were killed on April 3, 1974.

The National Weather Service (NWS) had preliminary reports of more than 300 tornadoes since storms began last Friday, including more than 130 on Wednesday alone. Alabama was slammed by two lines of storms and an evening tornado that tore through the city of Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox told CNN the tornado had “obliterated blocks and blocks” of his city, leaving 36 people dead there.

“Infrastructure has been absolutely devastated,” he said Thursday. “When you look at this path of destruction, likely five to seven miles (eight to 11 kilometers) long and half a mile to a mile wide, I don’t know how anyone survived.

“There are parts of this city I don’t recognise,” he added.

It was also a dark day for Birmingham, Alabama’s largest city with more than a million residents.

Mayor William Bell spoke of “whole neighborhoods of housing, just completely gone. Churches, gone. Businesses, gone. “I’m not talking about just roofs being blown off, but just completely gone.”