The death toll from a series of brutal storms that left a path of destruction across six southern U.S. states continues to rise, as the hardest-hit states of Alabama, along with Tennessee and Virginia, count their dead.
By Thursday night, as officials began recovery efforts, the total number of dead reached toward 300 -- a grim statistic that seems at odds with an era of satellite technology and high-tech warning systems.
But it appears that the storms were simply too wide, too powerful and too fast for people to respond to the warnings.
The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports around the region, including 66 in Alabama and 38 in Mississippi. The storms were part of a series of wicked weather patterns that have killed dozens of people over the last week.
Some 290 were officially confirmed dead earlier in the night, with about two-thirds of the victims in Alabama.
Wednesday's storms included what may be the most violent tornado ever to hit Alabama, where at least 204 were killed in the afternoon storm, according to the state emergency management agency. That death toll could rise further as search-and-rescue teams comb the damage.
"It happened so fast it was unbelievable," 63-year-old Jerry Stewart told The Associated Press near Birmingham, Ala. "They said the storm was in Tuscaloosa and it would be here in 15 minutes. And before I knew it, it was here."
Stewart and his wife, along with their daughter and two grandchildren, survived the tornado by hiding under their front porch.
Officials have also confirmed more than 30 dead in both in Mississippi and Tennessee, more than a dozen in Georgia. There are also more victims in both Virginia and Kentucky.
President Barack Obama said he would visit Alabama Friday to survey the damage and meet with the governor.
Obama expressed his condolences by phone to Gov. Robert Bentley earlier, and approved a request for emergency federal assistance.
Gov. Bentley said the National Weather Service did a good job of alerting people, but there was only so much that could be done to prepare for fierce storms.
"You cannot prepare against an F5," the most powerful category on a scale for measuring wind intensity, he said.
The town of Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is home to the University of Alabama, was hit hard when a tornado estimated to be a stunning two kilometres wide made a direct hit late Wednesday afternoon. Witnesses say parts of the town now look like a warzone, with debris littering the streets and many roads impassable.
"When I looked back, I just saw trees and stuff coming by," said Mike Whitt, a resident at DCH Regional Medical Center who took off running from the hospital's park deck when he heard a roar.
Christopher England, a staff member at the University of Alabama, which somehow escaped significant campus damage, told ABC News he ran up to the roof of his building to videotape the twister as it hit.
"We just saw this massive huge mile-wide tornado and we didn't know where it was going. We didn't know if it was coming towards us or away from us or what," he said.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said the storm had been "a devastating blow," leaving a swath of "utter destruction" up to 6.4 kilometres long and nearly a kilometre wide.
"What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," Maddox said. "We have neighbourhoods that have been basically removed from the map."
He said at least 100 injured residents were brought to a single hospital. Several city buildings including a fire station and a communication plant were damaged and the city's police and other emergency services were devastated.
"We need men, materials and equipment. Our system is overwhelmed. The tornado took out a major nerve center of city, our environmental services department which is how we pick up debris, trash. It's gone and the fleet that we have, the vehicles are gone," Maddox said.
Power outages
The Browns Ferry nuclear power plant outside of Huntsville, Alabama, lost offsite power and had to use seven diesel generators to power the plant's three units.
Still, with power lines down across the state, as many as 1 million people Alabamans were left without power.
Also in Huntsville, meteorologists at a National Weather Service office decided to take shelter in a reinforced steel room when they spotted multiple wall clouds, which sometimes spawn tornadoes, and realized that they themselves could be in the path of the storms.
The building was not seriously damaged.
"We have to take shelter just like the rest of the people," meteorologist Chelly Amin, who wasn't at the office at the time but spoke with colleagues about the situation, told the AP.
Eight deaths were also reported in Virginia where a tornado levelled a truck stop and several mobile homes. One person was also reported dead in Kentucky.
The governors of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia have each issued emergency declarations for parts of their states.
As many as 2,000 National Guard soldiers have been deployed to search for survivors.
"Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster," Obama said in a statement Wednesday night.
With reports from The Associated Press
