Tornadoes ravage South, kill at least 248

Alabama (AP):

Dozens of tornadoes ripped through the South, flattening homes and businesses and killing at least 248 people in six states in the deadliest outbreak in nearly 40 years.

As day broke yesterday, people in hard-hit Alabama surveyed flattened, debris-strewn neighbourhoods and told of pulling bodies from rubble after the storms passed Wednesday afternoon and evening.

"It happened so fast it was unbelievable," said Jerry Stewart, a 63-year-old retired firefighter who was picking through the remains of his son's wrecked home in Pleasant Grove, a suburb of Birmingham. "They said the storm was in Tuscaloosa and it would be here in 15 minutes. And before I knew it, it was here."

He and his wife, along with their daughter and two grandchildren, survived by hiding under their front porch. Friends down the street who did the same weren't so lucky, Stewart said he pulled out the bodies of two neighbours whose home was ripped off its foundation.

Alabama's state emergency management agency said it had confirmed 162 deaths, while there were 32 in Mississippi, 32 in Tennessee, 13 in Georgia, eight in Virginia and one in Kentucky.

Obama TO VISIT

President Barack Obama said he would visit Alabama today to view damage and meet with the governor and families devastated by the storms. Obama has already expressed condolences by phone to Govenor Robert Bentley and approved his request for emergency federal assistance.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Centre in Norman, Oklahama, said it received 137 tornado reports into Wednesday night. The storms forced authorities in some places into makeshift command posts after their headquarters lost power or were damaged, and an Alabama nuclear plant was using backup generators to cool units that were shut down.