Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for March 2, 2007 TORNADO DEVASTATES ALABAMA SCHOOL

Immediately below are scenes of the high school in Enterprise, Alabama from the CNN.com website...

Tornado death toll rises to 20

AMERICUS, Georgia (CNN) -- Deadly storms swept through Georgia killing at least nine people Thursday night just hours after wreaking havoc in neighboring Alabama.

Six people died in Baker County, in the southwest of Georgia, Buzz Weiss of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency said Friday morning. More details were not available.

A tornado roared through the heart of Americus, Georgia, on Thursday night, Sheriff Pete Smith said. At least two people were killed and seven others critically injured.

At least 20 people were killed as the storms blasted the central and southeastern United States.

Eight teenagers are known to have died while sheltering in a school in Enterprise, Alabama, the mayor told CNN. Earlier it was thought five children died there.

An adult was killed elsewhere in Enterprise -- adding to the death toll from Alabama, Georgia and Missouri.

The Americus twister also slammed into the city's hospital, Sumter Regional Medical Center, shutting it down after staff treated patients in the immediate aftermath of the storm. All of the patients have since been transferred to other area hospitals.

The dead were killed elsewhere in the city, not at the hospital.

Americus lost its fleet of ambulances when the tornado hit the hospital, Weiss said. Ambulances from Albany, about 35 miles away, were sent to help.

The National Weather Service said the report of the Americus tornado came at 9:22 p.m. ET, 20 minutes after it issued a tornado warning for the area.

According to the sheriff, the city is under a curfew and school has been canceled for Friday. Search parties were going door-to-door.

Another person was killed and four were hurt when a tornado touched down in rural Taylor County near the southwest Georgia city of Albany, Weiss of GEMA said.

One of the buildings destroyed in Americus was the local headquarters of the American Red Cross. A Red Cross official said the relief group also lost three disaster trailers, lights and generators that would have been used to respond to the disaster.

A shelter has been opened at the city's First Baptist Church. Smith said he expects 90 Georgia state troopers to be in the community of about 17,000 by sometime Friday morning.

'The whole building just collapsed'

In southeastern Alabama, a tornado smashed directly into Enterprise High School.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed on Enterprise to help keep roads clear for emergency workers, who were working overnight to search the damaged buildings, Enterprise Mayor Kenneth Boswell said.Students at Enterprise High School were taking cover when it was hit.

"The whole building just collapsed on everybody," said Chase Baldwin, a student at the school. "A bunch of people were trapped under cinder blocks, and people had their heads cut open."

There was one other death in Enterprise and one fatality in Wilcox County, where a number of homes were destroyed, Richardson said.

CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre, in the area to cover a military story, said Enterprise was reeling from "utter devastation" as anguished parents rushed to the town's severely damaged high school.

"[There are] vehicles flipped over, houses gone. This huge brick and steel building [was] torn apart by the power of the storm," McIntyre said.

"You can see the grief on the faces of the people who come here," he added. "I saw one student walking away, being comforted by another student."

Laren Allgood, a reporter for the Enterprise Ledger, said the sprawling high school "looked like a bomb dropped on [it.] All the school buses are demolished."

Allgood said alarms alerted the town's 20,000 residents before the tornado hit. "We knew to take cover."

The National Weather Service reported a swath of damage about 200 yards wide in Enterprise.

"I heard rumbling," said Walt Thornton, who works at the Enterprise Municipal Airport. "I looked up to the southwest and saw ... a huge tornado going on in the valley behind some of our hangars."

A tornado was also reported in nearby Abbeville, in Henry County, Alabama, a spokesman for the Abbeville Police Department said. There were no reports of injuries.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley ordered the state's National Guard to send a contingent of 140 troops, including medics, MPs and roving security patrols, from Mobile to Enterprise. Their primary mission is security.

The National Guard has three CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopters, as well as an engineering unit on standby if needed for search and rescue or debris removal.

In addition, at least two UH-1 "Huey" medevac helicopters were sent from nearby Fort Rucker to the high school.

Riley also declared a state of emergency in the area.

President Bush was briefed on the storm while in New Orleans Thursday afternoon and again when he boarded Air Force One for the return flight to Washington. He telephoned Riley and Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt en route.

"The president is deeply saddened to hear of the loss of life," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel. "He is thinking about the families of the victims and the citizens of the states, and the administration stands ready to help."

Girl killed

Earlier Thursday, a suspected tornado touched down at least twice in southern Missouri, leaving one person dead and four injured, according to Susie Stonner of the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency. (Watch storm's path of destruction)

Dennis Crider, a journalist for the West Plains Quill, told CNN a 7-year-old girl was killed in the small community of Caulfield. Three of the injured were her father, mother and a brother, Crider quoted the Howell County sheriff as saying.

A gas station in Caulfield, about 15 miles west of West Plains, was destroyed by the storm, according to the assistant manager of a neighboring station.

"It's like a war zone down there," said Delora Murta. (Gallery)

The storm system apparently formed quickly.

"We had a spotter who watched [the tornado] form and dissipate in 10 minutes," said West Plains Emergency Management Coordinator Kent Edge.

The storm system hit northern Arkansas Thursday morning. Hail covered the ground, but there was no damage and officials do not believe a tornado touched down.

On the north side of the storm, blizzard-like conditions and heavy snow were hitting the states in the path of the system.

Also from the CNN.com website...

Tornado survivor: School 'was complete chaos'

ENTERPRISE, Alabama (AP) -- With no time to send students home as storms raced their way, officials herded Erin Garcia and her high school classmates into the halls.

Outside, the skies grew so dark that lights at the airport came on in the middle of the day.

Then the tornado sirens started up.

And inside Enterprise High School, the lights went out.

"I was just sitting there praying the whole time," said Garcia, a 17-year-old senior.

As students and staff took shelter, a twister blew out the school's walls and collapsed its roof, killing eight people Thursday.

With a search of the high school continuing into the night, "the exact number is honestly not known," said John Pallas, the Coffee County emergency management director in Enterprise.

Debris from the school was strewn around the neighborhood, where cars were flipped or tossed atop each other.

The hallway Garcia was in was spared, but a roof and wall collapsed on students nearby.

"It was scary. It sounded like a bunch of people trying to beat the wall down. It was complete chaos out in the hallway," she said.

"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," Garcia said.

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.

Storms span the nation

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.

As night fell, crews dug through piles of rubble beneath portable lights at the 1,300-student school, looking for other victims.

"The number could very well increase as the search effort continues through the night," state emergency management spokeswoman Yasamie Richardson said.

More than 50 people were hospitalized as the violent storm front crossed the state.

Richardson said miscommunication at the scene was to blame for the erroneously high death tolls.

"Any time you have a disaster of this magnitude, there is confusion," she said.

Gov. Bob Riley's spokesman, Jeff Emerson, said some victims "may have been added twice because information was coming in from different officials."

Several school systems across Alabama closed or dismissed students early Thursday as the storm front approached from the west, extending the length of the state.

Garcia said students had gathered in hallways around 11 a.m. as a precaution. Some were allowed to have parents pick them up, and school buses lined up to take the others around 1 p.m., she said, but the warning sirens came on.

The storm struck about 1:15 p.m., and Richardson said some students were still trapped three hours later.

'It was just horrible'

Martha Rodriguez, a 15-year-old sophomore, said she had left the school about five minutes before the storm hit. When she returned, a hall at the school had collapsed, she said.

"The stadium was destroyed, and there were cars tipped over in the parking lot and trees were ripped out. There were trees and wood everywhere. It was just horrible," she said.

The school "appears to have been right in the path," said Paul Duval, a meteorologist with National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Florida, which monitors southeast Alabama.

Shelters opened, troops sent

Shelters opened in Enterprise for those whose homes were damaged. The state sent in about 100 National Guard troops, plus emergency personnel, lights and generators.

President Bush, who visited New Orleans on Thursday, was briefed on the tornadoes by senior staff and called Alabama Riley and Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, White House spokeswoman Dana Perrino said aboard Air Force One.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was working with officials in both states, she said.

In Caulfield, Missouri, resident Rick Jarvis heard the storm ripping through his gas station around dawn. His home next door suffered just minor damage, but the twister, described by witnesses as a fat black column, shredded the business, ripping down its roof and back wall.

"It sounded like a herd of horses tearing up stuff. When I came out, it was done," said Jarvis, 48.

As the system pushed eastward Thursday night, tornado watches remained in effect in eastern Alabama and were posted in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

The tornadoes were the second to devastate a portion of the South this year. In early February, tornadoes ripped through a 30-mile path in central Florida, killing 21 and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses.