Tornadoes rip US; 306 dead in worst storm since Katrina

Alabama, Apr 29: In one of the worst natural calamities to have hit the United States of America recently, tornadoes and violent storms ripped through seven Southern states that led to the death of 306 people according to sources. Authorities are desperately trying to take control over the situation. Loss of billions of dollars have also been incurred in the catastrophe.

The storms that have been brewing over the past couple of weeks unleashed its complete fury causing cars to go flying, roofs of houses ripping apart and trees being uprooted. With the images beamed through media channels, the incident was termed the worst case of natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

With tornadoes in this time of the year a common feature in US, the impact has never been so deadly. Jose Miranda, an executive with the catastrophe risk modeling firm EQECAT has been quoted as saying to Reuters, "In terms of the ground-up damage and quite possibly the insured damage, this event will be of historic proportions." The Federal Emergency Management Agency director Craig Fugate also backed the claim and said, “I think this is going to rank up as one of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. History."

There are official reports that revealed the death of 33 people in Mississippi, 34 in Tennessee, 11 in Arkansas, 14 in Georgia, eight in Virginia and two in Louisiana. US President Barack Obama is expected to visit the tornado-hit area and a state of emergency has been declared in Alabama and federal aid has been announced.

The worst impact was felt in a small town called Tuscaloosa, that has a population of 95,000 located in the west-central part of Alabama.

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