DEADLY TORNADOS: 47 DEAD AND COUNTING!

Twisters kill at least 47 in four Southern states
Rescuers sifting through rubble for survivors; at least 24 dead in Tenn.

NBC News and news services
updated 45 minutes ago

ATKINS, Ark. - Authorities went door-to-door early Wednesday searching for more victims of deadly tornadoes that ripped the roof off a shopping mall and blew apart warehouses as they tore across four states. The Associated Press reported at least 47 fatalities throughout the South.

The dead included 24 people in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, and seven in Kentucky, NBC News said. Three were killed in Alabama, emergency officials said. Among the victims were Arkansas parents who died with their 11-year-old in Atkins, about 60 miles northwest of Little Rock.

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Northeast of Nashville, Tenn., a spectacular fire erupted at a natural gas pumping station that authorities said could have been damaged by the storms. An undetermined number of people were reported dead.

Eight students were trapped in a battered dormitory at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., until they were finally freed.

Well after nightfall Tuesday, would-be rescuers went through shattered homes in Atkins, a town of 3,000 near the Arkansas River. Around them, power lines snaked along streets and a deep-orange pickup truck rested on its side. A navy blue Mustang with a demolished front end was marked with spray paint to show it had been searched.

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Washed away, but ultimately rescuedA few people north of the mall took shelter under a bridge and were washed away, but they were pulled out of the Wolf River with only scrapes, said Steve Cole of the Memphis Police Department.

In Mississippi, Desoto County Sheriff’s Department Cmdr. Steve Atkinson said a twister shredded warehouses in an industrial park in the city of Southaven, just south of Memphis.
“It ripped the warehouses apart. The best way to describe it is it looks like a bomb went off,” Atkinson said.

JUST TOO MUCH NEWS ON THIS...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23006771/

CHOMP SAYS: There is so much news on the devastation that I couldn't keep up! I will try to consolidate some of the stories this evening.

When I lived in Denver, the tornado warning sirens would go off. Very scary! We would grab cats, water, flashlights, radio...very quickly...and head for the basement.