Federal officials headed to Alabama Thursday to lend assistance and survey the damage from devastating tornadoes that left at least 131 people dead in the state and between half a million and a million people without power, federal and state officials said.
The death toll was sure to rise, officials said, as emergency personnel continued to search the wreckage covering 16 counties, with major damage in five, including a direct hit in the city of Tuscaloosa. Two-thousand state National Guard troops assisted rescue efforts, supporting local first responders and some help from other states.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said the storms were so large and powerful that there was little anyone could do to prevent the large number of lives lost.
“People were very much aware of what was going on yesterday,” he said in a news briefing Thursday morning. “It’s very difficult to move everyone out when a tornado comes through that’s a mile wide.”
President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for Alabama Wednesday and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s regional director was on his way to the state. FEMA Director Craig Fugate said he would visit the state later in the day at the president’s request. “Alabama’s governor is in charge and we are in support,” he said. Mr. Fugate said he wasn’t sure whether the tornado outbreak could be tied to global warming.
“It’s spring,” he said. “People think of Oklahoma as tornado alley, but the Southeast has a history of more powereful tornadoes that stay on the ground longer.” He said this season had drawn comparisons to the so-called super-tornado outbreak of 1974.
Mr. Fugate said a multistate earthquake-preparation drill scheduled for today would continue in states not affected by the tornadoes. The drill, along with the tornadoes striking the South, floods in the Midwest and fires in Texas all highlighted the necessity for FEMA to be prepared for multiple disasters, he said.
Gov. Bentley said he had begun the process for an expedited request to the federal government for help with recovery from the storms. “We’ve got millions of dollars of damage in just a few blocks in Tuscaloosa,” he said.
The governor is a physician who practices at one of the hospitals that was treating storm victims. Members of his family were in the path of destruction but escaped unhurt. “I was concerned about my family, but I’m concerned about everyone’s family,” he said. “It’s very difficult when we hear the mounting numbers” of fatalities.
The death toll was sure to rise, officials said, as emergency personnel continued to search the wreckage covering 16 counties, with major damage in five, including a direct hit in the city of Tuscaloosa. Two-thousand state National Guard troops assisted rescue efforts, supporting local first responders and some help from other states.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said the storms were so large and powerful that there was little anyone could do to prevent the large number of lives lost.
“People were very much aware of what was going on yesterday,” he said in a news briefing Thursday morning. “It’s very difficult to move everyone out when a tornado comes through that’s a mile wide.”
President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for Alabama Wednesday and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s regional director was on his way to the state. FEMA Director Craig Fugate said he would visit the state later in the day at the president’s request. “Alabama’s governor is in charge and we are in support,” he said. Mr. Fugate said he wasn’t sure whether the tornado outbreak could be tied to global warming.
“It’s spring,” he said. “People think of Oklahoma as tornado alley, but the Southeast has a history of more powereful tornadoes that stay on the ground longer.” He said this season had drawn comparisons to the so-called super-tornado outbreak of 1974.
Gov. Bentley said he had begun the process for an expedited request to the federal government for help with recovery from the storms. “We’ve got millions of dollars of damage in just a few blocks in Tuscaloosa,” he said.
The governor is a physician who practices at one of the hospitals that was treating storm victims. Members of his family were in the path of destruction but escaped unhurt. “I was concerned about my family, but I’m concerned about everyone’s family,” he said. “It’s very difficult when we hear the mounting numbers” of fatalities.
