Vicious Storms Leave 10 Dead in U.S.

Vicious storms smacked the Deep South and toppled trees like dominoes as tornadoes howled through towns, tossing a mobile home in Alabama nearly a quarter of a mile across a state highway, killing the man inside.

Combined with fatalities in Arkansas and Oklahoma, the death toll had risen to 10 by early Saturday — the deadliest storm of the season so far.

The system showed no mercy on Mississippi either as it rolled eastward, damaging or destroying dozens of homes, businesses and churches. Crews worked to clear roads, find shelter for displaced families and restore power to thousands.

In Marengo County in west-central Alabama, four separate tornadoes hit over the span of about five to six hours, emergency management director Kevin McKinney said.

The mobile home that had been tossed was a pile of rubble, along with another 30 homes or businesses that were destroyed, McKinney said. Four people had minor injuries.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency for the entire state.

The storms began late Thursday in Oklahoma, where at least five tornadoes touched down and two people were killed. The system then pushed into Arkansas, killing seven more. Dozens of others were hurt.

By midday Friday, the storms had marched into Tennessee, Louisiana and later into Georgia. At least three twisters touched down in Mississippi, where a state of emergency was declared in 14 counties, causing widespread damage but only one serious injury.

The hardest hit was Clinton, a city of about 26,000 people just west of Jackson, the state capital. At least seven people were taken by ambulance to hospitals with injuries.

In western Alabama, there was massive destruction in the small town of Geiger. An elderly woman was pinned down by her ceiling that had collapsed, but she was rescued without getting hurt.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said he had never seen the state suffer so many deaths from straight-line winds — sudden, violent downbursts that struck with hurricane force in the middle of the night. Typically, tornadoes and floods cause most of Arkansas storm-related fatalities.

Unlike tornadoes, which develop from columns of rotating air, straight-line winds erupt from a thunderstorm in unpredictable downdrafts, then spread across the landscape in all directions.

Teams from the National Weather Service worked Friday to learn more about what caused the damage.

Forecasters warned of approaching danger as much as three days earlier, but the winds up to 80 mph and repeated lightning strikes cut a path of destruction across a region so accustomed to violent weather that many people ignored the risk — or slept through it.

In the Arkansas town of Bald Knob, a 6-year-old boy died when the top of a tree more than 6 feet in diameter crashed through his home while he was sleeping.

The worst damage in Oklahoma was in the small town of Tushka, where residents wondered what would become of their community after a twister damaged or destroyed nearly every home along the two main streets. The only school — a collection of buildings housing grades K-12 — was all but gone.

Two people were killed and at least 25 hurt as the tornado plowed through the town of 350 before dawn. At least a dozen homes and businesses were destroyed.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency for 26 counties affected by the storm.

Back in Tuscaloosa, Ala., an apparent tornado damaged a motel and struck an oil change business, blowing the plastic out of large signs. Roads were crisscrossed with power poles and trees.