The scope is staggering. Some 75 million Americans are under threat of severe weather on Tuesday.
People from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast, and from the Midwest to the East Coast, are advised to keep their eyes to the sky and their ears to the radio. That’s a third of the country.
The greatest risk will again be in the Deep South, with Mississippi and Alabama in the bull’s eye for the worst of the storms.
The first two days of this powerful spring storm system, which is expected to rage into Wednesday, claimed 29 lives in six states.
Residents across the region huddled in hallways and basements on Monday as a string of tornadoes ripped through their states.
Eight people died in Mississippi on Monday, the state emergency management office said. Few additional details were immediately available.
It was a close call for Anthony Bishop and his co-workers as the storm hit the lube shop where they work in Tupelo.
“Right as it ripped the roof off the building … we all jumped in the pit,” Bishop told CNN affiliate WMC-TV. “Heard blocks hitting cars above me, glass flying all around the pit where we were.”
States of emergency
Two people died in Lincoln County, Tennessee, near the border with Alabama.
And two more were killed at a trailer park west of Athens, Alabama. A third person died in Tuscaloosa after a retaining wall collapsed on him.
Severe weather also rumbled through the Birmingham area late Monday.
“We got report of damages in Kimberly, Morris (and) Bessemer,” said Horace Walker a spokesman for Jefferson County Emergency Management. “No reports of injuries, but I expect for that to change because we do have entrapments.”
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency for all counties.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal did the same as the severe weather advanced.
“At this juncture, we’ve declared the emergency for the entire state because it’s impossible to pinpoint where the weather will hit,” Deal said. “Georgia is threatened at least through (Tuesday) and perhaps into Wednesday. We’re prepared now and we’ll be ready for recovery should we, God forbid, experience tornado damage or flooding.”
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SOURCE: CNN
Ed Payne and Martin Savidge
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