US clean-up after lethal storms

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

Perilous Times and Global Warming

US clean-up after lethal storms

		A helicopter evacuates a student from Enterprise High School Enlarge Image

Rescue efforts are under way in several states in America's south and mid-west after a series of tornadoes left at least 20 people dead.

Hardest hit was Alabama, where at least eight people died when a tornado struck a high school building on Thursday.

Nine more people died in Georgia, two of whom were killed when another tornado hit near a regional hospital.

The tornadoes were part of a major storm system that stretched across a swathe of the United States.

Where the tornadoes hit in southern US

The US Storm Prediction Center (SPC) had earlier issued a rare "major severe weather outbreak" warning for the eastern third of the US.

'Direct hit'

Some of the worst of the destruction was reported in Enterprise, Alabama.

		Send us your experiences In pictures: Alabama town hit 'I was sitting and praying'

Eight teenagers who were inside the local high school died as winds blew out walls and collapsed part of the roof.

"They were in one particular wing which took a direct hit," Enterprise Mayor Kenneth Boswell said.

One other person in Enterprise died and at least 40 people were injured as the tornado, travelling at over 50mph (80km/h), swept through the town.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley, who is to visit the school, has declared a state of emergency and sent 100 National Guard troops to the town.

"Enterprise has suffered major and widespread damage," he said.

A tenth person died in the town of Millers Ferry, in another part of the state, where high winds felled trees and flipped trailers.

		How a tornado is formed

Later in the day, at least nine people died in neighbouring Georgia.

Two people were killed and several more injured when a tornado struck near the Sumter regional hospital in Americus, Georgia, the state's emergency management agency said.

It was not clear whether the dead were patients. At the hospital, windows were shattered and cars had been thrown around. The ambulance fleet was reportedly destroyed.

A third person was reported killed in Taylor County, to the north, and six others in the southwest.

The tornadoes caused damage across several states

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue was to fly to the affected areas to assess the damage, his spokesman said.

Earlier, a seven-year-old girl died as some of the first tornadoes touched down in Missouri around dawn on Thursday. Others were reported in Arkansas and Kansas.

The severe weather formed a band of storms stretching from Minnesota in the north to Louisiana on the Gulf Coast.

Further north, several mid-western states were hit by heavy snow and blizzards, which closed hundreds of miles of major roads.

Two people died when their car overturned on a slippery road in North Dakota, and another was killed while shovelling snow in Nebraska, the Associated Press reported.

TORNADOES REPORTED IN THE US People killed by tornadoes in southern US Enterprise, Alabama: Eight dead at school, one elsewhere Millers Ferry, Alabama: One dead Americus, Georgia: Two killed when tornado struck hospital Taylor County, Georgia: One dead South-west Georgia: A further six people reported dead Missouri: Seven-year-old girl killed