A devastating daylong sweep of tornadoes ripped through Alabama on Wednesday, killing at least 128 people while smashing houses, businesses and government buildings. The worst path of destruction started in Tuscaloosa and cut across the heart of metro Birmingham, a path where at least 26 lives were lost. A second tornado in Walker County killed 13.
Rescue crews worked late into the night to free those trapped in homes and businesses and to dig through the rubble for bodies.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency and mobilized about 1,400 Alabama National Guardsmen. The damage was so widespread that it'll likely be days before the full death toll and property destruction are assessed across the state.
Hardest hit was metro Birmingham, where at least 26 people were confirmed dead as of late Wednesday -- 13 in Walker County, 11 in Jefferson County, including a child whose parents have not been located, and two in St. Clair County.
"We are going to retrieve the bodies we can right now," said Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Pat Curry. "In a situation like this, the first step is to make sure we have a positive ID."
Fifteen deaths were counted in Tuscaloosa County and more than 100 injuries.
"This is probably one of the biggest outbreaks in the Southeast in quite some time and that's saying something given the recent ones we've had," said Tom Bradshaw, National Weather Service meteorologist in the Southern Region headquarters in Fort Worth.
The enormously wide tornado that roared through Birmingham about 6 p.m. was from the same supercell system that produced the tornado that touched down just south of downtown Tuscaloosa, said Jim Stekovich, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service Birmingham office. "We've had -- just as predicted -- a massive outbreak of strong, violent tornadoes today," Stekovich said.
An all-day event
In the Birmingham area, the severe weather started about 5:30 a.m. with winds as high as 100 mph ripping through parts of the city, toppling trees and knocking out power. By nightfall power was out to 370,000 customers statewide, and more than 170,000 in metro Birmingham, Alabama Power reported.
That early storm was just a prelude to what weather forecasters had been warning for days. Schools were shut down and many took a day off from their jobs in anticipation of the events to come. People stayed glued to the radio, and many watched tornadoes touch down live on television, striking Cullman, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.
The storm damage in Jefferson County will surpass the destruction of 1998, Emergency Management Agency authorities said, referring to the April 8 twister that claimed 32 lives and injured 261 people.
"That was one path. This damage is more widespread," said Allen Kniphfer, Jefferson County EMA coordinator. It's not just that Jefferson County was hit, but the whole state was hit hard, so the impact will be worse, Kniphfer said.
Among the dead is a child whose parents have not been located, authorities said. At least eight people were killed in the west Jefferson County town of Concord and at least one was killed in nearby Hueytown, authorities said.
The morgue at Cooper Green Hospital can hold 14 bodies. A refrigerated trailer morgue will be set up outside the hospital to hold 18 bodies. Another trailer will also be available.
"It's going to take all of us working together and praying together," Kniphfer said.
Birmingham Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Matt Russell said every available firefighter and rescue worker was brought in for the storm.
There were 180 people working from Birmingham and two each from the surrounding municipalities in Jefferson County. "It's a massive effort. There is a possibility that people could still be trapped. Daylight will tell us more."
Russell said they have been overwhelmed with reports of damage and injuries.
"For us to respond to specific addresses, we do not have the resources to do that right now," Russell said. "We're going to get boots on the ground as soon as we can. We will set up a grid and we will search, neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street and house by house."
"It has been a disastrous day," said Jefferson County Commissioner Joe Knight. "But now it is time to help our neighbors."
Amid the wreckage, there are many stories of tragedy, but also stories with happy endings.
In Hueytown, Jason Wilson was in Jimmy's Auto, a repair shop his family owns on Allison-Bonnett Memorial Drive, when he heard the sirens. He gathered his family, including his 7-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter, and rode it out in the shop.
About an hour afterward, he stood in the parking lot, stunned, looking at the roof of the store, now a waist-high heap of metal and insulation. The roof had been blown off the building as they huddled inside, he said.
"We was fixing to go home and heard the siren," he said. "We took cover. It's about all you can do. And then it just blew the roof off."
Wilson, his wife, his father and his two children escaped without a scratch, he said.
Adjacent businesses suffered similar damage. Their roofs were peeled off or blown away. At Lamar's Quick Stop, the metal roof that used to be suspended over the gas pumps was crushed -- accordion style -- against a pole.
About a mile and a half down the road at Steve's Grocery, the store was similarly hammered, and first-responders were working to free three people trapped in the rubble.
Police were limiting access to the area to residents who needed to check on their homes, and the roads were littered with metal roofing material, insulation, shattered glass and demolished signs.
In the initial minutes after the tornado struck, rescue vehicles could not pass through the debris on Hibernian Street in Pratt City. A group of people clustered around an elderly woman bleeding from her forehead and scalp. As she held a wad of cloth against her wounds, the men in group prepared to carry her to a waiting gurney on Dugan Avenue. The woman was able to walk with their help.
Birmingham Board of Education President Phyllis Wyne's house on Dugan Avenue was destroyed in the tornado. She was not at home when the tornado hit, she said. A homemade cardboard sign stapled to a telephone pole in front of a destroyed building advertised a three-bedroom home for rent. The sign flapped in the wind as people milled about, talked on cellphones and tried to reach loved ones.
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