Post date: Apr 17, 2011 8:59:34 PM
At least 39 people are dead after three days of severe storms and tornadoes in the southern United States.
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES (APRIL 17, 2011) NBC - Three days of severe storms and tornadoes in the southern United States have killed at least 39 people, downing power lines and wrecking hundreds of buildings along its path, officials said on Sunday (April 17).
North Carolina accounted for the bulk of casualties and property losses, with 22 people killed and more than 80 others injured. Significant damage was reported in at least 15 counties and power was out to more than 200,000 people.
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue declared a state of emergency on Saturday (April 16) night and the National Weather Service confirmed at least eight tornadoes in the state.Statewide, high winds destroyed 60 houses and damaged 400 others, said Julia Jarema, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management.
In Raleigh, residents surveyed the damage to their homes and property. The area south of downtown was littered with snapped telephone poles, downed wires, broken glass and roofing debris.
"We heard the loud bang and, you know, the doors and glass and everything flying around and then it was over and the house was still standing although it had shifted off its foundationm," said one resident.
Seven people died as a result of the storms in Alabama, seven died in Arkansas and one died in Mississippi, and two people were killed in Oklahoma when a tornado flattened
buildings.
The storms began in Oklahoma on Thursday (April 14) and then moved through the South and hit the East Coast by Saturday. There were 241 tornadoes reported, with 50 confirmed.
Several tornadoes touched down in Gloucester, Virginia, police said, including that went through a local middle school.
"The total damage looks like about eight and a half miles. But several hundred yards wide," said Gloucester County Sheriff Steve Gentry.
Dominion Virginia Power said the two nuclear reactors at its Surry Power Station in southeastern Virginia shut down automatically on Saturday when an apparent tornado touched down and cut off an electrical feed to the station.
Backup generators operated normally and both units "are in safe and stable condition," the utility said in a statement.
The storm appeared to be the deadliest in the U.S. since February 2008, when 57 people died from tornadoes in the south and Ohio Valley, said AccuWeather.com meteorologist Andy Mussoline, who said the 39 death roll may change.