A deadly weather pattern is making life miserable for residents of the American Midwest and South this week. Carol Pearson reports on the havoc caused by tornadoes.
People in the central American states haven’t had time to recover from Sunday’s deadly tornadoes but now they are dealing with a new batch of twisters.
Wednesday, the U.S. National Weather Service posted tornado warnings for parts of Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Sunday’s killer storms that claimed 40 lives, flattened buildings, ripped roofs off high school gymnasiums and tore apart cars.
Entire neighborhoods were destroyed.
One man who was pulled from his home lived to talk about it. He said at one point, he was 10 meters in the air and looking down at his house.
He was lucky. He suffered only minor cuts and bruises.
On Tuesday, tornadoes were also reported in Illinois, killing 2 people.
The severe weather extended eastward to North Carolina, where torrential rain caused mudslides and flooding.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN
“The rain picked up and swirled like a tornado in front here.”
UNIDENTIFIED MAN
“We heard this gushing sound and a whistling sound and we knew that this isn’t right. I thank God it is the trees and not us.”
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN
“It was like someone had a big wheel underneath the house and the house was just rocking.”
U.S. PRESIDENT, GEORGE W. BUSH
“State and local authorities need to know the Federal Government (will) be moving as quickly as we possibly can to provide help where help is needed.”
President Bush has pledged federal help for the storm-damaged areas.
There is disbelief at the scale of destruction.
Residents of Mississippi had already been approved for 4 million dollars in emergency aid for last month’s severe storms, tornadoes and flooding.