Tornado-wrecked Dallas begins assessing damage

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The tornado hurtled toward the nursing home. Physical therapist Patti Gilroy said she saw the swirling mass barreling down through the back door, after she herded patients into the hallway in the order trained: walkers, wheelchairs, then beds.

"It wasn't like a freight train like everybody says it is," said Gilroy, who rounded up dozens to safety at Green Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. "It sounded like a bomb hit. And we hit the floor, and everybody was praying. It was shocking."

Texas Army National Guard Cpl. Brock Fischer of Charlie Troop, 3-124 Cav., searches a vehicle in front of a tornado damaged home Tuesday, April 3, 2012, in Forney, Texas. Tornadoes tore through the Dallas area Tuesday, peeling roofs off homes, tossing big-rig trucks into the air and leaving flattened tractor trailers strewn along highways and parking lots. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

The National Weather Service said as many as a dozen twisters touched down in a wrecking-ball swath of violent weather that stretched across Dallas and Fort Worth. The destructive reminder of a young tornado season Tuesday left thousands without power and hundreds of homes pummeled or worse.

As the sun rose Wednesday over the southern Dallas suburb of Lancaster, one of the hardest hit areas, it was clear that twisters had bounced in and out of neighborhoods, destroying homes at random. Vehicles were tossed like toys, coming to rest in living rooms and bedrooms.

At one house, a tornado had seemingly dipped into the building like an immersion blender, spinning directly down through an upstairs bedroom and wreaking havoc in the family room below before lifting straight back up and away. A grandfather clock leaned slightly but otherwise stood pristine against a wall at the back of the downstairs room that was filled with smashed furniture and fallen support beams.

Despite the intensity of the slow-moving storms, only a handful of people were hurt, a couple of them seriously, and no fatalities were reported as of late Tuesday.

The Red Cross estimated that 650 homes were damaged. Around 150 Lancaster residents stayed in a shelter Tuesday night.

"I guess 'shock' is probably a good word," Lancaster Mayor Marcus Knight said.

The exact number of tornadoes won't be known until surveyors have fanned across North Texas, looking for clues among the debris that blanketed yards and rooftops peeled off slats.

April is typically the worst month in a tornado season that stretches from March to June, but Tuesday's outburst suggests that "we're on pace to be above normal," said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Bishop.

An entire wing at the Green Oaks nursing home in Arlington crumbled. Stunning video from Dallas showed big-rig trailers tossed into the air and spiraling like footballs. At the Cedar Valley Christian Center church in Lancaster, Pastor Glenn Young said he cowered in a windowless room with 30 children from a daycare program, some of them newborns.

Ten people in Lancaster were injured, two of them severely, said Lancaster police officer Paul Beck. Three people were injured in Arlington, including two Green Oaks residents taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Arlington Assistant Fire Chief Jim Self said.

Gilroy said the blast of wind through Green Oaks lasted about 10 seconds. She described one of her co-workers being nearly "sucked out" while trying to get a patient out of the room at the moment the facility was hit.

Joy Johnston was also there, visiting her 79-year-old sister.

"Of course the windows were flying out, and my sister is paralyzed, so I had to get someone to help me get her in a wheelchair to get her out of the room," she said.

In one industrial section of Dallas, rows of empty tractor-trailers crumpled like soda cans littered a parking lot.

"The officers were watching the tornadoes form and drop," Kennedale police Chief Tommy Williams said. "It was pretty active for a while."

Most of Dallas was spared the full wrath of the storm. Yet in Lancaster, television helicopters panned over exposed homes without roofs and flattened buildings. Residents could be seen walking down the street with firefighters and peering into homes, looking at the damage after the storm passed.

Hundreds of flights into and out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field were canceled or diverted elsewhere Tuesday. About 500 flights remained grounded Wednesday, airport officials said.

The storms knocked out power for thousands. Utility Oncor said nearly 14,000 homes and businesses, mainly in the Arlington area, still had no electricity early Wednesday.

Meteorologists said the storms were the result of a slow-moving storm system centered over northern New Mexico.

___

Dixon reported from Lancaster. Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Terry Wallace and David Koenig in Dallas, Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth and Robert Ray in Lancaster contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Northern Argentina hit by 6.4 quake; some buildings evacuated, but no major damage or injuries

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck north-central Argentina Friday, shaking things up enough to cause evacuations in the capital and be felt in much of the country’s population centers. But people living near the epicenter didn’t even notice it.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Santiago del Estero, a provincial capital of 250,000 people and the 12th-largest city in Argentina. Magnitude-6 earthquakes can cause severe damage, but this one was centered nearly 400 miles (600 kilometers) below the surface — so far underground that its effects were minimized.

The shaking Friday prompted people to spill out of the San Isidro courts building in Buenos Aires province, nearly 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the epicenter, and people in tall buildings said they felt their furniture shake in the northeastern city of Rosario, but it was hardly noticed in Santiago del Estero.

“There hasn’t been any kind of damage or injuries here,” said the city’s civil defense chief, Daniel Pikaluk. “Maybe it was so deep that the aftershocks were felt more far away then close in. Here there were just a few people who said they felt a little dizzy, that’s all.”

The temblor also went unnoticed even closer to the epicenter.

“We didn’t hear or feel a thing,” said Daniel Ledesma, who owns the 32-room Hotel Avenida in Anatuya, a small town just 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the epicenter.

Source: The Associated Press

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Lets Help Somalia

Watch this video and share your comments. I even don't know who created this but Thank you who ever you are. It touched my heart. Really and Badly. Lets Help Somalia. Lets cry for Somalia.
I will never Waste My food!
I will never Waste My Water!
But I will cry for Somalia Until I Die!

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Seven Ways to Help Tornado Victims

Google supplied these before and after pictures of the storm's devastation.

The death toll from the catastrophic tornadoes in the South has climbed to more than 340, with thousands injured, homeless, without power or clean water. How can we harness the power of social media to help?

One of the best things you can do is use Twitter and Facebook to spread the word about places to donate and how to help. Here’s a list of ways to help get you started:

The Red Cross has two shelters set up in Tuscaloosa, temporary homes to 240 people so far. The relief organization provided meals for more than 600 people on Friday and is requesting more financial support. Donate to the Red Cross online RedCross.org, text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10, or call 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767) to give money or schedule a blood donation.

The Salvation Army has spread out all over the South, helping with sustenance for tornado survivors in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. Donate on the Salvation Army’s website at salvationarmyusa.org. Text “GIVE” to 80888 to make a $10 donation, or you can call 1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-725-2769) and designate “April 2011 Tornado Outbreak”.

Save the Children is providing food, doctors and education for kids, and the organization is accepting donations at the Save the Children website. The organization will also accept donations by phone at 800 728-3843 during business hours.

World Vision, a Christian humanitarian group, focuses on children, aiming to lessen the emotional shock from the devastating tornado outbreak. Find out more or donate at the World Vision website, or call 1-866-56-CHILD (24453).

Catholic Charities are accepting donations for tornado victims at the Catholic Charities website, or you can donate by calling 1-800-919-9338.

Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund is accepting donations on its website, requesting donations by credit card or check.

Post found items to Facebook: Patty Bouillon started a Facebook page containing found pictures and items that were blown by the tornadoes. She started that page after finding pictures and documents in her neighborhood that were blown all the way from Smithville, Mississippi, a town located 100 miles to the Southwest of her home. If you live near the disaster area and find photos, mementos or other items, scan them or take photos of them and post them to the Facebook page she created specifically for this purpose, entitled "Pictures and Documents Found after the April 27, 2011 Tornadoes". There are now more than 600 photos and items on the page, with 40 of them already identified.

Please, pick your favorite charity, let us know in the comments of other organizations that are helping the South’s tornado survivors, and post on Facebook and tweet the information of your choice far and wide. This is the second-worst storm in recorded history, and people are suffering right now. We need to help them.

Source: Mashable

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Tornadoes devastate South, killing at least 214

PLEASANT GROVE, Ala. (AP) — Dozens of tornadoes ripped through the South, flattening homes and businesses and killing at least 214 people in six states in the deadliest outbreak in nearly 40 years.

As day broke Thursday, people in hard-hit Alabama surveyed flattened, debris-strewn neighborhoods and told of pulling bodies from rubble after the storms passed Wednesday afternoon and evening.

Tamisha Cunningham who suffered a leg injury when her home was destroyed, looks over the damage while waiting for medical care, near Athens, Ala., Wednesday, April 27, 2011. Homes in the area were completely destroyed following a tornado that cut a path through Lawrence, Morgan and Limestone Counties. (AP Photo/The Decatur Daily, Gary Cosby Jr)

"It happened so fast it was unbelievable," said Jerry Stewart, a 63-year-old retired firefighter who was picking through the remains of his son's wrecked home in Pleasant Grove, a suburb of Birmingham. "They said the storm was in Tuscaloosa and it would be here in 15 minutes. And before I knew it, it was here."

He and his wife, along with their daughter and two grandchildren, survived by hiding under their front porch. Friends down the street who did the same weren't so lucky — Stewart said he pulled out the bodies of two neighbors whose home was ripped off its foundation.

Alabama's state emergency management agency said it had confirmed 131 deaths, while there were 32 in Mississippi, 29 in Tennessee, 13 in Georgia, eight in Virginia and one in Kentucky.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports into Wednesday night.

Some of the worst damage was in Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is home to the University of Alabama. Neighborhoods there were leveled by a massive tornado caught on video by a tower-mounted news camera that barreled through late Wednesday afternoon.

"When I looked back, I just saw trees and stuff coming by," said Mike Whitt, a resident at DCH Regional Medical Center who ran from the hospital's parking deck when the wind started swirling and he heard a roar.

On Thursday morning, he walked through the neighborhood next to the hospital, home to a mix of students and townspeople, looking at dozens of homes without roofs. Household items were scattered on the ground — a drum, running shoes, insulation, towels, and a shampoo bottle. Streets were impassable, the pavement strewn with trees, pieces of houses and cars with their windows blown out.

Dr. David Hinson was working at the hospital when the tornado hit. He and his wife had to walk several blocks to get to their house, which was destroyed. Several houses down, he helped pull three students from the rubble. One was dead and two were badly injured. He and others used pieces of debris as makeshift stretchers to carry them to an ambulance.

"We just did the best we could to get them out and get them stabilized and get them to help," he said. "I don't know what happened to them."

University officials said there didn't appear to be significant damage on campus, and dozens of students and locals were staying at a 125-bed shelter in the campus recreation center.

The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out. The governors of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia issued emergency declarations for parts of their states.

Dave Imy, a meteorologist with the prediction service, said the deaths were the most in a tornado outbreak killed 315 people in 1974.

In Alabama, where as many as a million people were without power, Gov. Robert Bentley said 2,000 national guard troops had been activated and were helping to search devastated areas for people still missing. He said the National Weather Service and forecasters did a good job of alerting people, but there is only so much that can be done to deal with powerful tornadoes a mile wide.

President Barack Obama said he had spoken with Bentley and approved his request for emergency federal assistance.

"Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster," Obama said in a statement.

The storms came on the heels of another system that killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi earlier this week. Less than two weeks earlier, a smaller batch of twisters raced through Alabama, touching off warning sirens, damaging businesses and downing power lines in Tuscaloosa, but there were no deaths there then.

In Kemper County, Miss., in the east-central part of the state, sisters Florrie Green and Maxine McDonald, and their sister-in-law Johnnie Green, all died in a mobile home that was destroyed by a storm.

"They were thrown into those pines over there," Mary Green, Johnnie Green's daughter-in-law, said, pointing to a wooded area. "They had to go look for their bodies."

And in Pleasant Grove, Samantha Nail surveyed the damage in the blue-collar subdivision where hers was the only home still intact. The storm slammed heavy pickup trucks into ditches and obliterated tidy brick houses, leaving behind a mess of mattresses, electronics and children's toys scattered across a grassy plain where dozens used to live.

"We were in the bathroom holding on to each other and holding on to dear life," Nail said. "If it wasn't for our concrete walls, our home would be gone like the rest of them."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Previous Post: Storms kill 72 around South, including 58 in state

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Storms kill 72 around South, including 58 in state

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (AP) — A wave of tornado-spawning storms strafed the South on Wednesday, splintering buildings across hard-hit Alabama and killing at least 77 people in four states.

Some 61 people died in Alabama alone, including 15 in Tuscaloosa when a massive tornado barreled through the area. Sections of the city that's home to the University of Alabama have been destroyed, the mayor said, and the city's infrastructure was devastated.

Farther north, a nuclear power plant west of Huntsville lost power and was operating on diesel generators. In Mississippi, 11 deaths were reported, four people were killed in Georgia and one in Tennessee.

A tornado moves through Tuscaloosa, Ala. Wednesday, April 27, 2011. A wave of severe storms laced with tornadoes strafed the South on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people around the region and splintering buildings across swaths of an Alabama university town. (AP Photo/The Tuscaloosa News, Dusty Compton)

In Tuscaloosa, news footage showed paramedics lifting a child out of a flattened home, with many neighboring buildings in the city of more than 83,000 also reduced to rubble. A hospital there said its emergency room had admitted about 100 people, but had treated some 400. Charts weren't even started for many patients because so many people were coming in at once. By midnight, only staff and patients were allowed inside.

"What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," Mayor Walter Maddox told reporters, adding that he expected his city's death toll to rise.

The storm system spread destruction Tuesday night and Wednesday from Texas to Georgia, and it was forecast to hit the Carolinas next before moving further northeast.

President Barack Obama said he had spoken with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and approved his request for emergency federal assistance, including search and rescue assets.

"Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster," Obama said in a statement.

Around Tuscaloosa, traffic was snarled Wednesday night by downed trees and power lines, and some drivers abandoned their cars in medians. University officials said there didn't appear to be significant damage on campus, and dozens students and locals were staying at a 125-bed shelter in the campus recreation center.

Maddox said authorities were having trouble communicating, and 1,400 National Guard soldiers were being deployed around the state. The flashing lights of emergency vehicles could be seen on darkened streets all over town, and some were using winches to remove flipped vehicles from the roadside.

Storms struck Birmingham earlier in the day, felling numerous trees that impeded emergency responders and those trying to leave hard-hit areas. Surrounding Jefferson County reported 11 deaths by late Wednesday; another hard-hit area was Walker County with eight deaths. The rest of the deaths were scattered around the state, emergency officials said.

In Huntsville, meteorologists found themselves in the path of tornado and had to evacuate the National Weather Service office.

In Mississippi, a police officer was killed Wednesday morning when a towering sweetgum tree fell onto his tent as he shielded his young daughter with his body, said Kim Korthuis, a supervisory ranger with the National Park Service. The girl wasn't hurt.

By late Wednesday, the state's death toll had increased to 11 for the day, said Mississippi Emergency Management Association spokesman Jeff Rent. The governor also made an emergency declaration for much of the state.

Storms also killed two people in Georgia and one in Tennessee on Wednesday.

In eastern Tennessee, a woman was killed by falling trees in her trailer in Chattanooga. Just outside the city in Tiftonia, what appeared to be a tornado also struck at the base of the tourist peak Lookout Mountain.

Tops were snapped off trees and insulation and metal roof panels littered the ground. Police officers walked down the street, spray-painting symbols on houses they had checked for people who might be inside.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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