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The states of Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Kentucky have been severely affected
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February 07, 2008, 05:00
More than 50 people are presumed dead after a series of deadly tornadoes swept through Southern United States.
The states of Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Kentucky have been severely affected.
Residents and rescue crews are counting the costs after storms crumpled trucks on highways and trapped and killed people in houses, factories and shops.
In Tennessee's Sumner County, northeast of Nashville, a tornado sucked an 11-month-old boy and his mother from their home. They were found later in a field. The child survived in good condition, but his mother was dead.
President George W Bush will travel to Tennessee on Friday to survey the storm damage and offer his support to those affected, said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.
In Arkansas where almost 500 homes and businesses were destroyed or heavily damaged in four counties, Johnny Martin, 65, gathered belongings from his brick and wood home which lay shattered beneath massive oak trees in the town of Atkins, west of Little Rock.
The death toll rivaled that of a series of tornadoes in May 1999 in Oklahoma, Texas and other states, when about 50 people were killed, the center said. Tornadoes typically kill about 70 people in the United States each year.
Trail of Devastation
The weather service and state officials said that in addition to the 30 killed in Tennessee, there were 13 dead in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and four in Alabama. Injuries were widespread, with 149 people hurt in Tennessee alone. "We know of eight dead and are still looking," said Shelvy Linville, mayor of Lafayette, Tennessee. "There's a lot of devastation."
Power outages were widespread. One tornado struck the Columbia Gulf Transmission company in Hartsville, Tennessee, and set off a natural gas fire that lit up the early morning sky, officials said. Inspection of the damage began mid-morning on Wednesday, with the last tornado reported a few hours earlier in Jackson County, northeastern Alabama, the weather service said. Late in the day forecasters said there was no longer a threat of severe weather across the region.
Mississippi reported no deaths but about 11 injuries after two tornadoes ripped across an industrial park, seriously damaging a Caterpillar factory, and farm communities north of the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford. In Jackson, Tennessee, a tornado damaged most of the student housing at Union University, injuring more than 50 students, though none of the injuries was life threatening. - Reuters
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