Intense Weather System could spawn up to 50 twisters
Pastor Dale Morgan
Intense Weather System could spawn up to 50 twisters*
POSTED: 2346 GMT (0746 HKT), March 1, 2007
Story Highlights
• NEW: Nine people reported dead in southern Alabama
• One death reported in southern Missouri
• Meteorologist: System could spawn up to 50 twisters
• Severe storms hit Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas
ENTERPRISE, Alabama (CNN) -- Eight people were killed and several
injured when a tornado struck a high school in Alabama on Thursday
afternoon, emergency officials said.
"Kids are walking around dazed, cut," said Laren Allgood, a reporter for
the Enterprise Ledger.
Two other people -- one in Missouri and another in Alabama -- also died
as a powerful weather system moving across the southern United States
spawned severe weather and possible tornadoes.
Students at Enterprise High School were taking cover in the hallways
when it was hit.
"The whole building just collapsed on everybody," said Chase Baldwin, a
student at the school. "A bunch of people were trapped under cinder
blocks, and people had their heads cut open."
CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre, in the area to cover
a military story, said Enterprise is reeling from "utter devastation" as
anguished parents rushed to the town's severely damaged high school.
"[There are] vehicles flipped over, houses gone. This huge brick and
steel building [was] torn apart by the power of the storm," McIntrye said.
"You can see the grief on the faces of the people who come here," he
added. "I saw one student walking away, being comforted by another student."
It's still unclear if students are trapped inside, McIntyre said.
Allgood said the sprawling high school "looked like a bomb dropped on
[it.] All the school buses are demolished."
Allgood said alarms alerted the town's 20,000 residents before the
tornado hit. "We knew to take cover."
The National Weather Service reported a swath of damage about 200 yards
wide in Enterprise.
"It's just a scene of utter destruction," said CNN's Jamie McIntyre, who
was on the scene.
"I heard rumbling," said Walt Thornton, who works at the Enterprise
Municipal Airport. "I looked up to the southwest and saw ... a huge
tornado going on in the valley behind some of our hangars."
He estimated the funnel cloud was "probably a quarter mile from me."
Thornton said it did not hit the airport.
A tornado was also reported in nearby Abbeville, in Henry County,
Alabama, a spokesman for the Abbeville Police Department said.
"We had one residence that was struck, no reports of injuries," said
public information officer Chad Sowell. About half a mile away, 10 miles
west of Abbeville, an 18-wheeler was overturned on State Highway 10 and
the driver was trapped, he said.
One death in Missouri blamed on system
Earlier Thursday, a suspected tornado touched down at least twice in
southern Missouri, leaving one person dead and four injured, according
to Susie Stonner of the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency.
Dennis Crider, a journalist for the West Plains Quill, told CNN the
fatality was a 7-year-old girl in the small community of Caulfield.
Three of the injured were her father, mother and a brother, Crider
quoted the Howell County sheriff as saying.
A gas station in Caulfield, about 15 miles west of West Plains, was
destroyed by the storm, according to the assistant manager of a
neighboring station.
"It's like a war zone down there," said Delora Murta.
She said the roof and the back wall of the other gas station is gone and
two huge trees nearby were uprooted. An antique store and restaurant
across the road also suffered some damage, Murta said.
The station has been owned by the same family for three generations.
"I never thought [that] I'd see it blown down, no," owner Peggy Jarvis
said as she surveyed the damage. "When I heard it was flattened and
blown away, I couldn't believe it."
Volatile system formed quickly
"We had a spotter who watched [the tornado] form and dissipate in 10
minutes," said West Plains Emergency Management Coordinator Kent Edge.
Later in the day a supercell storm generated the tornado that struck
Enterprise.
Tim Greathouse, a reporter for the Enterprise Ledger, said he saw "a lot
of structural damage" after the storm passed through the town.
A roof at the elementary school "has been ripped," he said. "Shingles
scattered all over."
Power lines were down and the utility crews were out "in full force," he
said.
The storm that spurred the twister moved northeastward at about 40 mph
toward Ozark, in southeastern Alabama.
"We've got some lines down -- that means we're going to have a problem
with traffic -- and we also have debris down and we don't know all the
damage that may be in low-lying areas of the city," said Ozark Police
Deputy Chief Myron Williams.
Schools there dismissed at 1 p.m. (2 p.m. ET), but there were still some
students at three schools, Williams said.
The storm system hit northern Arkansas Thursday morning, where
forecasters warned officials in Fulton County, on the Missouri border,
to watch out for tornadoes.
But after the storm passed, leaving pea- to marble-size hail covering
the ground, no damage was reported and officials don't believe a tornado
touched down.
"It looked awful," said Fulton County Emergency Management Coordinator
Al Roork. "But we just had hail and rain."
In the city of Moberly in north-central Missouri, a possible tornado
blew a tractor-trailer truck on its side, slightly injuring the driver.
It also tore the roof off of one business and damaged a hangar at the
regional airport and a plane inside it, according to Sgt. Kevin
Palmatory of Moberly Police.
Wednesday night, suspected tornadoes tore through eastern Kansas, south
of Kansas City. Heavy damage was reported in Linn County, on the
Missouri border.
Aerial video from CNN affiliate KSHB-TV showed residents Thursday
picking through what was left of their homes. The remains of a residence
and a business on one rural road looked like a giant steamroller had
come through, leaving flattened splinters behind.
"We have a lot of structural damage in rural areas of the county ...
(but) no serious injuries and no deaths," Linn County Sheriff Marvin
Stites told CNN's "American Morning."
There are still widespread power outages, Stites said, due to downed
power lines an electrical substation that was destroyed.
Of the county's 12,000 residents, though, few people have been displaced.
"We're still small enough that neighbor takes care of neighbor," the
sheriff said.
Severe weather forecast throughout region
A system of super cells, capable of producing tornados, headed across
southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
Dozens of counties in those states were under tornado warnings.
"Don't try to outrun this storm," said CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers
warned. "If you get into it and you can see it and you're close enough
to it, you're not going to be able to get out of the way. Take cover now."
Myers predicted between 30 and 50 tornadoes could be spawned by the
storm system.
Montgomery, Alabama Mayor Bobby Bright said his region was getting ready.
"Some of our adjoining counties are closing schools and sending kids
home early, getting the buses off the streets," he told CNN's "Newsroom."
Tornado watches were in effect in parts of Louisiana and Georgia.
In western Georgia, southwest of Atlanta, Coweta County Emergency
Management Agency Director Eddie Ball said a National Weather Service
statement on the dangerous system set to move through the region
described it as the "worst storms we have seen in this area in over 10
years."
On the north side of the storm, blizzard-like conditions and heavy snow
were hitting the states in its path.
In Omaha, Nebraska, near-whiteout conditions were blanketing the city.
Video from CNN affiliate KETV showed some people braving the highways
anyway.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for Omaha and
predicted as many as 5 inches of snow by Thursday evening.
As much as a foot of snow could fall in the Minneapolis area, Myers said.
The roof of a grocery store in Brookfield, Wisconsin, collapsed under
the weight of 4 inches of wet snow.