Damaging tornadoes touch down in South
PRATTVILLE, Ala. (AP) - February 18, 2008 No fatalities were immediately reported in Prattville, outside
Montgomery, but two people were critically injured, said Fire
Department official Dallis Johnson.
Twenty-seven people had minor injuries, officials said. About
200 homes were damaged or destroyed. A curfew began as darkness
fell Sunday.
A 35-bed mobile hospital unit was set up outside a Kmart to
treat victims with minor to moderate injuries so that hospitals
could take those with serious injuries, Dr. Steve Allen said.
Toppled utility poles and storm debris littered the area.
Shelters opened at churches, and school buses shuttled storm
victims out of the stricken area to the city center.
David Shoupe, 18, assistant manager at Palm Beach Tan, said he
and a co-worker barely made it into a laundry room before the roof
fell in and the wind tossed shopping carts aloft.
"Soon as we turned the corner, the roof collapsed everywhere
except the laundry room," Shoupe said, standing beside his car,
which had its front windshield cracked by debris and the other
windows shattered.
About 9,000 homes and businesses lost power in Prattville. The
tornado was part of storms that swept across the South, damaging
homes elsewhere in Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.
A tornado destroyed four homes in Escambia County, Fla. About 60
other homes, businesses and storage buildings were damaged to
varying degrees, said county spokeswoman Sonya Daniel.
Residents hustled to clear debris, cover broken windows and
spread tarpaulins on roofs. "I expected to hear the roof blow off
as bad as that wind was blowing," Willie Chastang, 58, told the
Pensacola News Journal.
Across the border in Escambia County, Ala., two houses were
destroyed by a possible tornado in rural Dixie, the Weather Service
said.
The storm damaged some structures in Covington County, Ala., and
toppled trees, said Jeremie Shaffer, assistant director of the
county emergency management agency.
At least eight people were injured in Georgia's Crawford County,
the sheriff's office said. The storm also damaged or destroyed some
homes around Macon, Ga., and knocked out power to about 2,000
customers statewide.
Freezing rain and snow fell across the southern two-thirds of
Wisconsin, still weary from a major snowstorm that stranded
hundreds of motorists and snarled travel for days.
Numerous crashes were reported, and authorities urged people to
stay off roads. The National Weather Service issued blizzard
warnings for much of Iowa and Wisconsin, as well as flood warnings
in parts of the two states.
Dozens of schools in central and eastern Iowa were closed or had
delayed classes on Monday.
The conditions also forced shopping malls, libraries and
churches to close. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary
Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama postponed or canceled campaign
stops ahead of Tuesday's primary.
Heavy snow and slush closed Kansas City International Airport
for almost six hours, the longest closure in its 35-year history,
authorities said. Dozens of flights were canceled.
The severe weather in the South comes on the heels of a tornado
outbreak this month that killed more than 50 people in several
states, including Alabama.
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Associated Press writer Amy Lorentzen in Des Moines, Iowa,
contributed to this report.