A wave of severe storms laced with tornadoes strafed the South on Wednesday, killing at least 39 people in four states and splintering buildings across swaths of an Alabama university town.
In Alabama alone, at least 25 people died Wednesday. There were 11 deaths in Mississippi, including a father killed as he tried to shelter his daughter from the storm at a campsite.
Tuscaloosa's mayor said sections of the city that's home to the University of Alabama had been destroyed by a massive tornado, while a hospital there said its emergency room had admitted at least 100 people. News footage showed paramedics lifting a child out of a flattened home, with many neighboring buildings in the city of more than 83,000 also reduced to rubble.
"The city experienced widespread damage from a tornado that cut a path of destruction deep into the heart of the city," Mayor Walter Maddox said in a statement.
