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NASHVILLE, United States-Dozens of tornadoes ripped across southern US states causing severe damage and killing at least 45 people, officials said Wednesday. Twenty-four people were killed in Tennessee, thirteen in Arkansas, and seven in Kentucky, officials in the three states said. CNN reported one fatality in Alabama.More than 50 tornadoes touched down as a series of thunderstorms rare for the winter season rolled through the region late Tuesday and early Wednesday.Tornado watches were in effect as of 1400 GMT in parts of Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and the western Florida panhandle, the National Weather Service said."It took the whole house," a woman told CNN. "I just got up and I thought it was a fire. We got up and there's no house left."Twisters knocked down a police radio tower, crushed the wall of a shopping mall and damaged a hangar at the Memphis airport, said Laura McPherson of the Tennessee Emergency Management Area."We're still trying to assess all the damage now that the sun is coming up," she said, as storms continued to threaten the eastern part of the state, around Chattanooga.Sixteen students were rescued from dormitories that collapsed at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and three were critically injured, she said.The Red Cross moved 50 people trapped at a retirement center in Madison County to a shelter.The hardest hit area in Tennesse was Macon county, with 10 fatalities and 65 injured, she said.Across the border in neighboring Kentucky, three people were killed in a trailer park in Muhlenberg County, and four others died in Allen County, Buddy Rogers of the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management told AFP.In Arkansas, the hardest hit areas were Atkins, with four fatalities, and Gassville, with one, Arkansas emergency official Renee Preslar said.Meanwhile, a raging fire at a gas pumping station northeast of Nashville had burned itself out, after lighting the night sky with to 500 foot (150 meter) flames, McPherson said.Columbia Gulf Transmission, which operates the pumping station, attributed the fire to storm damage, she said.The pumping station is part of a 4,200-mile (6,760-kilometer) pipeline that moves gas through four southern states.Hundreds of thousands of people in the area were left without power due to the storms.Arkansas and Tennessee were among states holding nominating votes Tuesday for November's presidential election.Democratic contender Hillary Clinton, celebrating victory in both states, told a crowd: "We want to keep the people of Arkansas and Tennessee in our prayers. They've suffered horrible tornadoes tonight.""They are in our thoughts and in our prayers," said her Democratic rival Barack Obama. "We hope that our federal government will respond quickly and rapidly to make sure that they get all the help that they need."Several polling stations in Tennessee and Arkansas had to be closed as the storm approached, reports said.
As in the days of Noah.....
