WORLD / America
Tornadoes kills 20 in Alabama
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-03-02 10:28
A US Military helicopter evacuates a patient from Enterprise High School
after a tornado did severe damage to the school, March 1, 2007 in
Enterprise, Ala. [AP]
ENTERPRISE, Ala. - A violent storm system that ripped apart an Alabama
high school as students hunkered inside later tore through Georgia,
hitting a hospital and raising the death toll to at least 20 across the
Midwest and Southeast.
Eight students were killed when a tornado struck Enterprise High School,
blowing out the walls and collapsing part of the roof, Mayor Kenneth
Boswell said Friday.
"They were in a one particular wing that took a direct hit," Boswell said
of the victims. Boswell appeared drained as his staff and National Guard
crews tried to assess the damage at dawn and search the torn-up
neighborhoods for more victims.
"You take it methodically," Boswell said. "You prioritize, and you move
on."
As the massive storm system swept into Georgia, another tornado
apparently touched down near the Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus,
117 miles south of Atlanta, killing at least two people and injuring an
undetermined number of others, said Buzz Weiss of the Georgia Emergency
Management Agency. At least 42 patients were evacuate to Phoebe Putney
Memorial Hospital in Albany, Putney spokeswoman Jackie Ryan said.
Six more people were killed in the town of Newton, Ga., and several homes
were destroyed, Fire Chief Andy Belinc said early Friday.
The burst of tornadoes was part of a larger line of thunderstorms and
snowstorms that stretched from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast. Authorities
blamed a tornado for the death of a 7-year-old girl in Missouri, 10
people in Alabama, nine in Georgia, and twisters also damaged homes in
Kansas.
Inside Enterprise High School, officials had been watching the storm
Thursday as it swept through southern Missouri, killing a 7-year-old girl
there, and headed into Alabama. The students were preparing to leave when
the sirens started up and the lights went out.
Teacher Grannison Wagstaff was with them.
"I said 'Here it comes. Hit the deck," he told CBS's "The Early Show"
Friday. "I turned around and I could actually see the tornado coming
toward me."
As the students scrambled for shelter, a section of roof and a wall near
17-year-old senior Erin Garcia collapsed on her classmates.
"I was just sitting there praying the whole time," Erin said. "It sounded
like a bunch of people trying to beat the wall down. People didn't know
where to go. They were trying to lead us out of the building.
"I kept seeing people with blood on their faces."
Outside, debris from the school was strewn around the neighborhood, where
cars were flipped or tossed atop each other.
At least one other person was killed in Enterprise, a city of about
23,000 some 75 miles south of Montgomery. Another died across the state
in rural Millers Ferry, where trailer homes were flipped and trees
toppled, officials said.
In Sumter County, home of former President Jimmy Carter, the main
hospital received some storm damage and there were two fatalities and an
undetermined number of injuries, Weiss said. Officials weren't sure
whether the injured and the dead were inside the hospital when it struck,
he said.
The front windows of the hospital were blown out and the wind had picked
up cars in the parking lot and tossed them around, hurling one into a
tree.
Around the town, the storm uprooted trees and knocked down power lines.
Several homes and businesses were destroyed in downtown Americus. Among
the worst hit was Cheek Memorial Church. It's wooden steeple was knocked
off the roof and smashed in front of the church.
Marcia Wilson, who lives across the street from the Church, said she
heard a huge roar as the storm went through.
"It felt like the whole house was fixing to fall in," she said. "We could
just hear it coming over us. All I could do was pray that God take care
of us and he did. We're all right."
Farther north, a tornado killed a man in a mobile home in Taylor County,
county Emergency Management Agency Director Gary Lowe said. Weiss said
between 40 and 60 homes were damaged in Clay County, south of Muscogee
along the Chattahoochee River on the Alabama line.
The storm knocked out power to 15,000 homes in Columbus and another 3,200
across the Chattahoochee in Phenix City, Ala., damaged some buildings and
toppled trees into streets.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue was flying by helicopter Friday morning to
Americus and Baker County to survey the damage there, Perdue spokesman
Dan McLagan said.
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