Winter storm wallops US, Canada: 22 dead
Pastor Dale Morgan
Saturday March 3, 3:58 AM
*Winter storm wallops US, Canada: 22 dead*
Authorities were digging through the rubble of a Georgia high school
Friday, cleaning up from a string of tornadoes spawned by a winter storm
that killed at least 22 people in the US and Canada.
The massive storm system was headed north where it was expected to turn
from thunderstorms to blizzards and dump up to a foot (30 centimeters)
of snow in the northeastern US, according to the National Weather Service.
The service said Friday it had received reports of 31 tornadoes touching
the ground around the region as US media showed images of roofless homes
with blown-out windows, uprooted and shredded trees, dangling power
lines and cars overturned and crushed.
US President George W. Bush, who was fiercely criticized for a slow
response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was to tour the devastation on
Saturday, the White House said in a statement.
"The president continues to monitor the resulting aftermath of the
terrible storms which struck throughout the south yesterday," White
House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
The last tornado watch expired at 1600 GMT as front of the storm passed
off the east coast.
In the southern state of Alabama, 10 people were killed, including eight
teenagers hit when a tornado struck a high school in the town of
Enterprise, the state emergency management office said.
Students had been told to huddle against the school's brick walls for
hours before the twister barreled down. High school student Brooke
Shroades survived the tornado by hunkering down in a cubbyhole.
"I felt like I was on a rollercoaster. It was the scariest thing ever,"
she told the Enteprise Ledger newspaper.
"When I heard the train sound, I started screaming," she said.
Her father, Mike Shroades, who had hoped to pick up his daughter before
the storm hit, took shelter in a school hallway with other parents,
teachers and students.
"You could feel your body moving from the wind and suction," he told the
Enterprise Ledger.
Emergency services spokeswoman Yasamie Richardson said rescue workers
were still searching for possible victims.
"They are still going through the debris just in case they missed
anything," she said. The state has opened shelters for the hundreds of
people rendered homeless by the storm.
In the pre-dawn hours of Friday a tornado triggered by the same storm
hit the Murray Sumter Regional Hospital in the town of Americus,
Georgia, destroying the ambulance fleet and forcing 55 patients to
evacuate, CNN reported.
Two people not linked to the hospital were killed there.
At least seven other people were killed across southern Georgia, and one
died in Missouri after an apparent tornado destroyed a mobile home.
Federal authorities, still under pressure from the slow response to the
devastation wreaked by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, announced they were
sending emergency aid to storm-stricken Alabama and Missouri.
Alabama Governor Bob Riley said the town of Enterprise, where the high
school was destroyed, had suffered "major and widespread damage." He
announced he was deploying about 100 National Guard soldiers to assist
in recovery efforts.
"Everything I've seen today -- the damage is truly remarkable," he told
reporters. "To sum it up, it is horrific. I truly am amazed that we
didn't have more loss of life."
As the storm barreled across North America, rain and tornadoes in the
south turned to snow and sleet to the north.
A thick blanket of snow fell on eastern Canada forcing flight
cancellations and causing havoc on roads that left two children dead.
Public broadcaster CBC, citing police, said the children died Thursday
when their car collided with a truck on an icy, snow-blown road
northwest of Kitchener. Their mother remained in critical condition in
hospital.
Ottawa expected 10 to 15 centimeters (four to six inches) of snow on
Friday, with wind gusts up to 70 kilometers per hour (43 miles per hour).
By midday, 15 to 20 centimeters (six to eight inches) of snow had
already fallen on Montreal, and was expected to reach 30 centimeters (12
inches) by the end of the day, said Environment Canada meteorologist
Andre Cantin, with winds up to 80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per hour).
Heavy snow and freezing rain were also expected in the US region between
New York and Vermont.