Tornadoes Rip Through South
A massive cold front sweeping across the midsection of the country triggered violent weather and many tornadoes across southern states. At least 44 people are dead with searchers desperately trying to locate more victims and survivors.
LAFAYETTE, Tenn. - Crews went door-to-door Wednesday searching debris for more victims of deadly tornadoes that ripped the roof off a shopping mall, pummeled mobile homes and blew apart warehouses as they tore across four states. At least 44 people were killed throughout the South.
The victims included 24 people in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, and seven in Kentucky, emergency officials said. Among those killed were Arkansas parents who died with their 11-year-old in Atkins, about 60 miles northwest of Little Rock. Hundreds more were injured.
The family died from trauma when their home "took a direct hit" from the storm, Pope County Coroner Leonard Krout said.
"Neighbors and friends who were there said, 'There used to be a home there,'" Krout said.
Ray Story tried to get his 70-year-old brother, Bill Clark, to a hospital after the storms leveled his mobile home in Macon County, about 60 miles northeast of Nashville. He died as Story and his wife tried to navigate debris-strewn roads in their pickup truck, they said.
"He never had a chance," Nova Story said. "I looked him right in the eye and he died right there in front of me."
The twisters, which also slammed Mississippi, were part of a rare spasm of winter weather that raged across the nation's midsection at the end of the Super Tuesday primaries in several states. As the extent of the damage quickly became clear, candidates including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee paused in their victory speeches to remember the victims.
Accuweather is reporting that the storm system is going to pound the east today and will spark more strong local storms as well as blanketing the Northeast with heavy snow.
In the wake of the historic and deadly outbreak of tornadoes on Tuesday, the threat for severe weather will shift to the East Coast today. The same storm will also be responsible for blanketing the Midwest and New England with snow.
Severe weather-related watches and warnings are currently in effect as the potent storm from Tuesday is marching eastward. The threat for severe weather today will lie from the mid-Atlantic and the upper Ohio River Valley to the central Gulf Coast.
According to the Severe Weather Center, a cold front cutting into record-breaking warmth over the East Coast will give rise to the intense thunderstorms. The strongest thunderstorms will be capable of producing damaging winds, hail and flooding downpours.
The potential also exists for a few tornadoes to spawn. The tornado threat will not be as widespread as on Tuesday since winds are not significantly spiraling upward through the atmosphere. Still, any tornado that forms could become deadly or destructive.
Up to six inches of snow are predicted in many areas. There is also yet another cold wave heading down from the arctic that will hit the northern High Plains on Friday. No word yet on how far to the south that front will reach.
Environment | Gaius Wednesday, 6 February , 2008
By quilly mammoth, Wednesday, 6 February , 2008 @ 8:56 am
A high pressure system is pushing northeast out of the gulf bringing warm humid air to the Southern Atlantic coast. This means harsh weather for them but importantly to us in flyover country it means a trailing low along the Texas coast.
Which will pull that artic front down. Yippee, an Alberta Clipper in February.