Tweet
Eight Teens Die in Alabama High School
NEWTON, Ga. (March 2) - 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 19 across the Midwest and Southeast.
Eight teenagers died when a tornado struck Enterprise High School in Alabama, blowing out the walls and collapsing part of the roof, Mayor Kenneth Boswell said Friday.
In parts of Enterprise, "it looks like ground zero, where there's just nothing left," Boswell told NBC's "Today" show. Another person was killed elsewhere in the city.
In Georgia, a tornado apparently touched down near the Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, 117 miles south of Atlanta, killing at least two people there and injuring an undetermined number of others, said Buzz Weiss of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. Hospital spokesman Ed Farr said by telephone that a tornado had struck the building but had no time to discuss details.
"We're trying to move patients and trying to stabilize things for our patients," Farr said.
Six more people were killed late Thursday in the town of Newton, in Baker County, and several homes were destroyed, Fire Chief Andy Belinc said early Friday.
Inside Enterprise High School the students were preparing to leave when the sirens started up and the lights went out. The students rushed for shelter. Then 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 was scary. 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 elsewhere 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.
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, and twisters also were reported in Kansas.
NEWTON, Ga. (March 2) - 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 19 across the Midwest and Southeast.
Eight teenagers died when a tornado struck Enterprise High School in Alabama, blowing out the walls and collapsing part of the roof, Mayor Kenneth Boswell said Friday.
In parts of Enterprise, "it looks like ground zero, where there's just nothing left," Boswell told NBC's "Today" show. Another person was killed elsewhere in the city.
In Georgia, a tornado apparently touched down near the Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, 117 miles south of Atlanta, killing at least two people there and injuring an undetermined number of others, said Buzz Weiss of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. Hospital spokesman Ed Farr said by telephone that a tornado had struck the building but had no time to discuss details.
"We're trying to move patients and trying to stabilize things for our patients," Farr said.
Six more people were killed late Thursday in the town of Newton, in Baker County, and several homes were destroyed, Fire Chief Andy Belinc said early Friday.
Inside Enterprise High School the students were preparing to leave when the sirens started up and the lights went out. The students rushed for shelter. Then 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 was scary. 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 elsewhere 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.
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, and twisters also were reported in Kansas.
Comment