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Tornadoes devastate US South, killing at least 280

By 이우영
Published : April 29, 2011 - 09:28

 


This aerial photo shows the devastation of the Alberta section of Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Thursday, April 28, 2011. (AP-Yonhap News)


PLEASANT GROVE, Alabama (AP) _ At least 281 people were killed across six states _ more than two-thirds of them in Alabama _ as America's deadliest tornado outbreak in almost four decades pulverized entire neighborhoods.

Firefighters searched one splintered pile after another for survivors Thursday, combing the remains of houses and neighborhoods of large large cities that bore the half-mile (one kilometer)-wide scars the twisters left behind.

The death toll from Wednesday's storms seems out of a bygone era, before Doppler radar and pinpoint satellite forecasts were around to warn communities of severe weather. Residents were told the tornadoes were coming up to 24 minutes ahead of time, but they were just too wide, too powerful and too locked onto populated areas to avoid a horrifying body count.

``These were the most intense super-cell thunderstorms that I think anybody who was out there forecasting has ever seen,'' said meteorologist Greg Carbin at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

``If you experienced a direct hit from one of these, you'd have to be in a reinforced room, storm shelter or underground'' to survive, Carbin said.

The storms seemed to hug the interstate highways as they barreled along like runaway trucks, obliterating neighborhoods or even entire towns from Tuscaloosa to Virginia. One family rode out the disaster in the basement of a funeral home, another by huddling in a tanning bed.

In Concord, a small town outside Birmingham that was ravaged by a tornado, Randy Guyton's family got a phone call from a friend warning them to take cover. They rushed to the basement garage, piled into their car and listened to the roar as the twister devoured the house in seconds. Afterward, they saw daylight through the shards of their home and scrambled out.

``The whole house caved in on top of that car,'' he said. ``Other than my boy screaming to the Lord to save us, being in that car is what saved us.''

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said his state had confirmed 195 deaths. There were 33 deaths in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 14 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky. Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured _ 600 in Tuscaloosa alone.

Some of the worst damage was in Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is home to the University of Alabama. The storms destroyed the city's emergency management center, so the school's Bryant-Denny Stadium was turned into a makeshift one. School officials said two students were killed, though they did not say how they died. Finals were canceled and commencement was postponed.

A tower-mounted news camera there captured images of an astonishingly thick, powerful tornado flinging debris as it leveled neighborhoods.

That twister and others Wednesday were several times more severe than a typical tornado, which is hundreds of yards wide, has winds around 100 mph (160 kph) and stays on the ground for a few miles, said research meteorologist Harold Brooks at the Storm Prediction Center.

``There's a pretty good chance some of these were a mile wide, on the ground for tens of miles and had wind speeds over 200 mph (320 kph),'' he said.

The loss of life is the greatest from an outbreak of U.S. tornadoes since April 1974, when 329 people were killed by a storm that swept across 13 Southern and Midwestern states.

Brooks said the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa could be an EF5 _ the strongest category of tornado, with winds of more than 200 mph (322 kph)_ and was at least the second-highest category, an EF4.

Search and rescue teams fanned out to dig through the rubble of devastated communities that bore eerie similarities to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when town after town lay flattened for nearly 90 miles (144 kilometers).

In Phil Campbell, a small town of 1,000 in northwest Alabama where 26 people died, the grocery store, gas stations and medical clinic were destroyed by a tornado that Mayor Jerry Mays estimated was a half-mile (1 kilometer) wide and traveled some 20 miles (30 kilometers).

``We've lost everything. Let's just say it like it is,'' Mays said. ``I'm afraid we might have some suicides because of this.''

President Barack Obama said he would travel to Alabama on Friday to view storm damage and meet Gov. Robert Bentley and affected families. As many as a million homes and businesses there were without power, and Bentley said 2,000 National Guard troops had been activated to help. The governors of Mississippi and Georgia also issued emergency declarations for parts of their states.

``We can't control when or where a terrible storm may strike, but we can control how we respond to it,'' Obama said. ``And I want every American who has been affected by this disaster to know that the federal government will do everything we can to help you recover and we will stand with you as you rebuild.''

The storm prediction center said it received 164 tornado reports around the region, but some tornadoes were probably reported multiple times and it could take days to get a final count.

   In fact, Brooks said 50 to 60 reports _ from the Mississippi-Alabama line, through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and into Georgia and southwestern Tennessee _ might end up being a single tornado. If that's true its path would be one of the longest on record for a twister, rivaling a 1925 tornado that raged for 219 miles (350 kilometers).

Brooks said the weather service was able to provide about 24 minutes' notice before the twisters hit.

``It was a well-forecasted event,'' Brooks said. ``People were talking about this week being a big week a week ago.''

Gov. Bentley said forecasters did a good job alerting people, but there's only so much they can do to help people prepare.

Carbin, the meteorologist, noted that the warning gave residents enough time to hunker down, but not enough for them to safely leave the area.

``You've got half an hour to evacuate the north side of Tuscaloosa. How do you do that and when do you do that? Knowing there's a tornado on the ground right now and the conditions in advance of it, you may inadvertently put people in harm's way,'' he said.

Officials said at least 13 died in Smithville, Mississippi, where devastating winds ripped open the police station, post office, city hall and an industrial park with several furniture factories. Pieces of tin were twined high around the legs of a blue water tower, and the Piggly Wiggly grocery store was gutted.

``It's like the town is just gone,'' said 24-year-old Jessica Monaghan, wiping away tears as she toted 9-month-old son Slade Scott.

At Smithville Cemetery, even the dead were not spared: Tombstones dating to the 1800s, including some of Civil War soldiers, lay broken on the ground. Brothers Kenny and Paul Long dragged their youngest brother's headstone back to its proper place.

Seven people were killed in Georgia's Catoosa County where a suspected tornado flattened about a dozen buildings and trapped an unknown number of people.

Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers said several residential areas had ``nothing but foundations left,'' and that some people reported missing had yet to be found.

The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out.

In a large section of eastern Tennessee, officials were looking for survivors and assessing damage. In hard-hit Apison, an unincorporated community near the Georgia state line where eight people died, about 150 volunteers helped with the search.

It was unclear how high the death toll could rise. In Mississippi, Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson and a crew of deputies and inmates searched the rubble, recovering five bodies and marking homes that still had bodies inside with two large orange Xs.

``I've never seen anything like this,'' Johnson said. ``This is something that no one can prepare for.''


This aerial photo shows the devastation of the Cedar Crest neighborhood in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Thursday, April 28, 2011.(AP-Yonhap News)


Workers use heavy machinery to clear power lines in Ringgold, Ga. Thursday, April 28, 2011, after a tornado hit the area Wednesday night. (AP-Yonhap News)


Law enforcement officers search the rubble of a Tuscaloosa, Ala., home for signs of life Thursday, April 28, 2011. (AP-Yonhap News)


This aerial photo shows tractor trailers at Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co in Glade Spring, Va. damaged during a tornado on Thursday April 28, 2011. (AP-Yonhap News)


Billy Burns stands on his front porch talking to a neighbor after a tornado hit Pleasant Grove just west of downtown Birmingham yesterday afternoon on Thursday, April 28, 2011, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP-Yonhap News)

 

 

美 토네이도 강타..사망자 300명 육박

앨라배마 등 중남부 6개주..비상사태 선포, 주방위군 투입

원전 가동 중단..항공기 운항 2천여편 잇단 취소

오바마 "인명피해 안타깝다"..29일 현장 방문

미국 앨라배마주를 비롯한 중남부 일대를 강력한 토네이도가 휩쓸어 28일 오후(현지시간) 현재 사망자가 300명에 육박 한 것으로 집계되고 있다.
앨라배마주와 미시시피, 조지아 등에서는 비상사태가 선포돼 주방위군이 구호작 업에 나섰으며, 남부 텍사스에서 북부 뉴욕주에 이르는 광범위한 지역에 걸쳐 호우 경보가 발령되기도 했다.

특히 이날 오전부터는 뉴욕과 메릴랜드, 노스캐롤라이나 등 동부지역 일대에도 토네이도 경보가 내려졌다.

AP통신에 따르면 지금까지 앨라배마주에서만 180명이 숨진 것으로 확인됐으며, 미시시피주(33명), 테네시주(33명), 조지아주(14명), 버지니아주(8명),  켄터키주(1명) 등을 포함해 최소 269명의 사망자가 발생했다.

그러나 CNN은 앨라배마에서만 194명이 숨지는 등 사망자가 최소 280명이 넘는 것으로 나타났으며, 앞으로 사망자는 더 늘어날 것으로 우려된다고 보도했다.

이와 관련, 미국 기상청(NWS)은 지난 1974년 315명의 사망자를 낸 토네이도  이 후 최악의 피해라고 밝혔다. 지금까지 미국에서 최악의 토네이도는 1925년 3월 미주 리주 등에서 발생한 것으로, 747명이 숨졌다.

버락 오바마 대통령은 이날 앨라배마의 로버트 벤틀리 주지사와 전화통화를  갖 고 연방정부 차원의 긴급구호 작업과 이재민 지원을 승인했으며, 이에 따라 현재 약 1천400명의 방위군 병력이 투입되고 있다.

특히 오바마 대통령은 이날 백악관에서 차기 국방장관 등 안보라인 개편을 공식 발표하기에 앞서 토네이도 피해를 언급하며 "앨라배마주 등에서 인명피해가 발생한 데 대해 안타깝게 생각한다"면서 "폭풍이 언제 어디서 일어날지 통제할 수는 없어도 어떻게 대응할지는 통제할 수 있다"면서 전폭적인 지원을 약속했다.

오바마 대통령은 29일 직접 앨라배마주를 방문해 피해 주민과 당국자들을 만날 예정이다.

이번 토네이도로 인한 피해가 가장 심각한 곳은 앨라배마 대학이 위치한 인구 8 만3천명의 도시 터스컬루사로, 지난 27일 오후부터 몰아닥친 토네이도로 지금까지 3 6명이 숨진 것으로 확인됐다.

이 곳에서는 중심가의 식당과 상가건물 등이 형체를 알아볼 수 없을 정도로  파 괴됐으며, 전기공급이 중단되면서 밤이 되자 도시 전체가 암흑천지로 변했다고 현지 언론이 전했다.

또 시내에는 쓰러진 나무와 전선들이 뒤엉켜 차량통행이 불가능한 상태며, 병원 응급실에는 600명 이상의 부상자가 몰려 북새통을 이루고 있다. 특히 경찰서와 소방 서 등 도시의 주요 관공서와 기반시설도 대부분 파괴돼 피해규모 파악과 구호작업에 차질이 빚어지고 있다. 

터스컬루스의 월터 매덕스 시장은 "피해규모가 전례를 찾아볼 수 없을 정도"라 면서 피해복구에 수개월이 걸릴 것이라고 말했다.

앨라배마주에서는 넘어진 나무들이 송전선을 덮치면서 24만5천가구의  전기공급 이 중단됐으며, 토네이도에 이은 폭우로 중남부 일대에는 홍수와 도로유실 등의  피 해 신고가 쇄도하고 있는 것으로 전해졌다.

특히 앨라배마주 헌츠빌 서쪽에 위치한 브라운스 페리 원전의 전송선로가 파손되면서 가동이 중단돼 비상발전기로 원자로를 냉각시키고 있다고 현지 당국이 전했다. 그러나 안전시스템이 가동되고 있어 가장 낮은 단계의 비상상황이라고 미 원자력규제위원회(NRC)가 밝혔다.

켄터키 주정부 당국은 앞으로도 토네이도와 폭우가 계속될 수 있다면서 "폭우가 완전히 수그러들 때까지 경계를 유지해 달라"고 주민들에게 당부했다.

기상당국은 지금까지 앨라배마에 66건, 미시시피 38건 등을 포함해 최소 137건 의 토네이도 발생이 보고됐다고 밝혔다.

이날 오전부터는 뉴욕과 메릴랜드, 버지니아, 노스캐롤라이나, 사우스캐롤라이나, 조지아, 플로리다 등에도 토네이도 발생 경보가 내려졌다. 또 뉴욕과 펜실베이니아, 미주리, 메릴랜드, 버지니아, 웨스트버지니아, 아칸소, 조지아 등에는 폭우에 따른 홍수 경보가 발령됐다. 

이번 토네이도로 인해 델타항공과 아메리칸항공 등 미국의 대형 항공사들은 지난 27일 1천편의 국내.국제선 항공기 운항을 취소한데 이어 이날도 1천300여편의 운 항을 취소했다.

미 기상 당국은 앞으로 30일까지 폭우와 강풍을 동반한 기상재해가 되풀이될 수 있다고 전망했다.

(연합뉴스)


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