BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Rescue crews went from one wrecked house to another and a helicopter with a sensor to detect body heat was flown in to help find the dead and alive Thursday after a tornado killed at least 32 people in Alabama.
The tornado struck the area with winds up to 250 mph while many people were at regular Wednesday night church services. Violent weather from the same storm system also killed five people in Georgia and one in Mississippi, for 38 deaths altogether.
In Alabama, nearly all of the dead were in small communities west of Birmingham, where some houses looked as if they had exploded. More than 40 people remained hospitalized, several of them in critical condition.
Gov. Fob James said 150 homes were destroyed and 300 heavily damaged. President Clinton declared parts of Alabama and Georgia disaster areas, clearing the way for federal aid.
The storm system roared into Georgia early Thursday, with high winds and heavy rain and hail. Two people died in the Dunwoody area northeast of Atlanta, one when a tree fell on a house. Two hundred miles to the southeast, one death was reported at Fort Stewart, Ga. — that of a soldier working in the administration building. A woman and a 13-year-old girl were killed in a mobile home community just south of the base.