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WASHINGTON: US authorities rushed aid to disaster areas Monday after
a series of tornadoes swept across the United States, killing at
least 23 people and shattering homes and businesses.
US President George W. Bush called it a “sad
day” for devastated communities in the states of Missouri,
Oklahoma and Georgia and promised emergency federal aid.
“We send our prayers to those who lost their
lives and the families of those who lost their lives, and the
federal government will be moving hard to help,” Bush said in
Waco, Texas a day after his daughter Jenna’s wedding on the family
ranch.
A total of 14 people were reported dead in
Missouri, seven in Oklahoma, and two in the southeastern state of
Georgia. There were also scores of injured.
“We are still conducting some search and
rescue [operations] today,” Susie Stonner, a spokeswoman for
Missouri’s department of emergency management, told Agence France-Presse,
adding that some of the injured were “in hospital in critical
condition.”
Numerous tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma late
Saturday as the storms ripped across the state at 35 to 45 miles per
hour [55 to 70 kph], killing seven in the area near the town of
Picher, the Oklahoma department of emergency management said. Some
150 people were injured there.
Fierce winds ripped roofs off houses, and other
homes were thrashed to kindling as the storms downed power lines,
utility poles and trees.
“In some cases, only a home’s concrete slab
remains,” Oklahoma authorities said in a statement.
The American Red Cross has opened shelters for
those affected by the storms in Oklahoma and Missouri.
Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry declared a state of
emergency in the disaster area and planned to visit it later Sunday,
while National Guard troops were called to shut off access to
Picher.
“We will get through this pulling together and
working together as Oklahomans, making sure our neighbors have what
they need,” Henry was quoted by the Oklahoman newspaper as saying.
The state said that about 6,300 homes and
businesses were without electricity, including 3,000 near Tulsa.
The storms barreled eastward, killing two people
and damaging hundreds of homes in the southeastern state of Georgia
in the early morning hours of Sunday, the state’s emergency
management agency said.
-- AFP
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