Tornadoes and violent storms tore through seven southern states, killing at least 313 people and causing billions of dollars of damage in one of the deadliest swarms of twisters in US history.
US President Barack Obama described the loss of life as “heartbreaking” and called the damage to homes and businesses “nothing short of catastrophic.”
He promised strong federal support for rebuilding and planned to view the damage yesterday.
Over several days this week, the powerful tornadoes — more than 160 reported in total — combined with storms to cut a swath of destruction heading west to east. It was the worst US natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed up to 1,800 people.
In some areas, whole neighborhoods were flattened, cars flipped over and trees and power lines felled, leaving tangled wreckage.
While rescue officials searched for survivors, some who sheltered in bathtubs, closets and basements told of miraculous escapes.
“I made it. I got in a closet, put a pillow over my face and held on for dear life because it started sucking me up,” said Angela Smith of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, one of the worst-hit cities.
In Birmingham, Alabama, which was also hard hit, Police Chief A.C. Roper said rescue workers sifted through rubble “hand to hand” on Thursday to pull people from destroyed homes.
“We even rescued two babies, one that was trapped in a crib when the house fell down on top of the baby,” Roper said in an interview on PBS NewsHour.
Tornadoes are a regular feature of life in the US south and midwest, but they are rarely so devastating.
Wednesday was the deadliest day of tornadoes in the US since 310 people lost their lives on April 3, 1974.
Given the apparent destruction, insurance experts were wary of estimating damage costs, but believed they would run into the billions of dollars, with the worst impact concentrated in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.
“In terms of the ground-up damage and quite possibly the insured damage, this event will be of historic proportions,” said Jose Miranda, an executive with the catastrophe risk modeling firm EQECAT.
“I think this is going to rank up as one of the worst tornado outbreaks in US history,” US Federal Emergency Management Agency director Craig Fugate said.
Fugate spoke in an interview with CNN from Alabama, where his agency said the tornadoes killed at least 210 people.
There were still unconfirmed reports late on Thursday of “entire towns flattened” in northern parts of the state, Fugate said.
“We’re still trying to get people through rescues and locate the missing,” he said.
The 1.6km-wide monster twister that tore on Wednesday through Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, may have been the biggest ever to hit the state, AccuWeather.com meteorologist Josh Nagelberg said.
Obama was to visit Alabama yesterday to see the damage and meet the governor. He declared a state of emergency for Alabama and ordered federal aid.
“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,” Obama said at the White House.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS