More Energy, More Weather
NYT March 2, 2007
Widespread Storms Cause Deaths in 3 States
By BRENDA GOODMAN
ATLANTA, March 2 — A violent storm system that stretched nearly 1,000 miles from the Midwest to the Southeast has killed at least 20 people in three states, including 8 who died when what appeared to be a tornado caused the roof to collapse at a high school in Enterprise, Ala. on Thursday, state emergency management officials said.
At least 31 tornados have been reported over the last two days in Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, the National Weather Service reported. The storm system has been blamed for nine deaths in Alabama, two in Georgia and one in Missouri.
A tornado apparently touched down early today near the Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, 117 miles south of Atlanta. The storm blew out the hospital’s windows, tossed cars into trees and killed at least two people, but the extent of the damage remained unclear.
“We’re still tying to assess everything,” the Americus fire chief, Andy Belinc, told The Associated Press early this morning. Georgia’s governor declared a state of emergency.
Storms continued to lash at the area this morning. The weather service issued a tornado warning for coastal areas of North Carolina. In South Carolina, the Coast Guard prepared to search for six people on a small boat who sent a distress call during the storm, saying they were taking on water off the coast.
On Thursday, students at Enterprise High School had just been ordered to take cover in hallways when fierce winds bore down around 1 p.m., plunging them into darkness and pounding them with falling debris.
“The ceiling part fell on us, and rocks hit me on the back,” said Ezekiel Jones, 17, a senior who was in the school gymnasium when the storm struck. “I was thinking of my mom, my girlfriend, my sister and my friends. Everybody was screaming.”
Steven Carter, 16, a junior, said he was in the science wing when the lights went out.
“It happened fast,” Steven said. “There wasn’t much warning.”
He said he could smell gas leaking from the Bunsen burners in the classrooms. “A lot of kids were trapped,” Steven said.
Steven said he saw science teachers tending to some of the wounded with first-aid kits salvaged from the wrecked classrooms.
Toni J. Kaminski, a spokeswoman for Medical Center Enterprise, said the hospital treated 50 to 60 people.
“We have seen a myriad of injuries, including a ruptured spleen, head trauma, chest trauma, broken bones,” Ms. Kaminski said.
Though the high school seems to have taken a direct hit, neighborhoods throughout Enterprise also reported extensive damage.
Jeanne Davis, 55, a clerk at the Army base at nearby Fort Rucker, said she rushed home after the winds stopped to find shingles torn off her roof and a two-by-four driven into the ground in her front yard.
Throughout Enterprise, which has a population of about 21,000 people, cars were upended, trees were snapped and homes flattened, with other reports of injuries coming from the downtown area. A state emergency management spokeswoman, Yasamie Richardson, said that in addition to those killed at the high school, one other person in Enterprise was also killed.
Seth Hammett, speaker of the Alabama House, said one person died in Millers Ferry, about 80 miles northwest of Enterprise, where 12 to 15 trailer homes had been destroyed.
In Georgia, the storms killed at least nine people and caused an unknown number of injuries, including six deaths in Baker County and two in Americus, Reuters reported, quoting Buzz Weiss, spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
In Missouri, a 7-year-old girl was killed and four members of her family were injured when a tornado flattened their mobile home near West Plains.
Tanya Bricking Leach contributed reporting from Enterprise, Ala., and Maria Newman from New York.
Widespread Storms Cause Deaths in 3 States
By BRENDA GOODMANATLANTA, March 2 — A violent storm system that stretched nearly 1,000 miles from the Midwest to the Southeast has killed at least 20 people in three states, including 8 who died when what appeared to be a tornado caused the roof to collapse at a high school in Enterprise, Ala. on Thursday, state emergency management officials said.
At least 31 tornados have been reported over the last two days in Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, the National Weather Service reported. The storm system has been blamed for nine deaths in Alabama, two in Georgia and one in Missouri.
A tornado apparently touched down early today near the Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, 117 miles south of Atlanta. The storm blew out the hospital’s windows, tossed cars into trees and killed at least two people, but the extent of the damage remained unclear.
“We’re still tying to assess everything,” the Americus fire chief, Andy Belinc, told The Associated Press early this morning. Georgia’s governor declared a state of emergency.
Storms continued to lash at the area this morning. The weather service issued a tornado warning for coastal areas of North Carolina. In South Carolina, the Coast Guard prepared to search for six people on a small boat who sent a distress call during the storm, saying they were taking on water off the coast.
On Thursday, students at Enterprise High School had just been ordered to take cover in hallways when fierce winds bore down around 1 p.m., plunging them into darkness and pounding them with falling debris.
“The ceiling part fell on us, and rocks hit me on the back,” said Ezekiel Jones, 17, a senior who was in the school gymnasium when the storm struck. “I was thinking of my mom, my girlfriend, my sister and my friends. Everybody was screaming.”
Steven Carter, 16, a junior, said he was in the science wing when the lights went out.
“It happened fast,” Steven said. “There wasn’t much warning.”
He said he could smell gas leaking from the Bunsen burners in the classrooms. “A lot of kids were trapped,” Steven said.
Steven said he saw science teachers tending to some of the wounded with first-aid kits salvaged from the wrecked classrooms.
Toni J. Kaminski, a spokeswoman for Medical Center Enterprise, said the hospital treated 50 to 60 people.
“We have seen a myriad of injuries, including a ruptured spleen, head trauma, chest trauma, broken bones,” Ms. Kaminski said.
Though the high school seems to have taken a direct hit, neighborhoods throughout Enterprise also reported extensive damage.
Jeanne Davis, 55, a clerk at the Army base at nearby Fort Rucker, said she rushed home after the winds stopped to find shingles torn off her roof and a two-by-four driven into the ground in her front yard.
Throughout Enterprise, which has a population of about 21,000 people, cars were upended, trees were snapped and homes flattened, with other reports of injuries coming from the downtown area. A state emergency management spokeswoman, Yasamie Richardson, said that in addition to those killed at the high school, one other person in Enterprise was also killed.
Seth Hammett, speaker of the Alabama House, said one person died in Millers Ferry, about 80 miles northwest of Enterprise, where 12 to 15 trailer homes had been destroyed.
In Georgia, the storms killed at least nine people and caused an unknown number of injuries, including six deaths in Baker County and two in Americus, Reuters reported, quoting Buzz Weiss, spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
In Missouri, a 7-year-old girl was killed and four members of her family were injured when a tornado flattened their mobile home near West Plains.
Tanya Bricking Leach contributed reporting from Enterprise, Ala., and Maria Newman from New York.
No comments:
Post a Comment