U.S. tornadoes toll rises over 350, thousands homeless

Tornado hit Pleasant Grove

PLEASANT GROVE, Ala. (Reuters) - The death toll from the second deadliest U.S. tornado outbreak on record rose above 350 on Saturday as thousands of stunned survivors camped out in the shattered shells of their homes or moved into shelters or with friends.


Nothing left

With some estimates putting the number of homes and buildings destroyed close to 10,000, state and federal authorities in the U.S. South were still coming to terms with the scale of the devastation from the country's worst natural catastrophe since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.


Left flat on the ground

One disaster risk modeler, EQECAT, is forecasting insured property losses of between $2 billion and $5 billion from the havoc inflicted by the swarm of violent twisters that gouged through seven southern states this week.


Looking for; what left

The death toll in Alabama, the hardest-hit state, rose to 255 on Saturday, with at least 101 more deaths reported in Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia and Louisiana.


Thank God safe our live

"We're in the thousands of homes completely gone ... It's not an exaggeration to say that whole communities were wiped out," Yasamie August, spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, told Reuters.

Gavriel Hudson holds their cocker spaniel Nala after the dog was
rescued and wife Laura Hudson sit in front of their home that was
destroyed by a tornado in Pleasant Grove, Alabama, April 29, 2011

In many communities in the U.S. South, the scenes of destruction with tangled piles of rubble, timber, vehicles and personal possessions recalled the devastation seen in the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.


Power and water were still out in many areas.

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