Cleanup Begins After Intense Storms Wreak Deadly Havoc on South

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• JIM LEHRER:

  Those deadly tornadoes that struck the South, Jeffrey Brown has our story.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  The morning after a line of tornado-spawning thunderstorms marched across five southern states, the toll was clear: At least 50 people had been killed and dozens more injured.

  Cars could be seen tumbled together, tractor-trailers tossed like toys, trees scattered and shredded, buildings crushed.

• STORM VICTIM:

  All I have left is my front porch. The rest of it's gone. The rest of the house is gone.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  The unusual mid-winter weather produced heavy winds and large hail, but the most destructive force: a series of strong tornadoes, as many as 60 or more by some accounts.

  The storms moved from Arkansas east, striking portions of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Johnnie Martin came home to his Atkins, Arkansas, home just as the twisters bore down. He huddled with his family in a bathroom.

• JOHNNIE MARTIN, Storm Victim:

  It's like to bust your eardrums. It was just, oh, so loud. And then all this insulation started falling on us and I know it was something. Of course, I had two great, big oak trees here and one on the other end. And that one got the far bedroom, and then, of course, it popped out all the windows.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  The Martins were fortunate. Three fellow Atkins residents — a husband, wife and their 11-year-old daughter — died, three of the 13 people killed in Arkansas.

  Across the Mississippi River, Tennessee suffered most. A Memphis warehouse roof collapsed and killed three. Tornadoes then ripped through Union University in Jackson, east of Memphis, destroying much of the campus. Despite the damage, no one was killed.

• DR. DAVID DOCKERY, President, Union University:

  The campus has suffered major damage. We now, in initial assessments this morning, which are further than what we knew even a couple of hours ago, about 40 percent of the residential life area is completely destroyed.

• STORM VICTIM:

  When we were in the bathroom, the second we closed the door, it was as if it allowed the storm to go. And right then, just noise, you know, just torrents, every glass breaking, everything we had thrown around.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Further east, near Nashville last night, a propane gas facility was set aflame. A tower of fire shot hundreds of feet into the sky, visible for miles around.

  This morning, rescue workers and volunteers rummaged through wreckage at sites throughout the state. In all, more than two dozen were confirmed dead, and hundreds were injured in Tennessee.

  Just to the south in Alabama, four people died. The storms also slammed into Kentucky. Jerry Mitchell is the mayor of Central City.

• MAYOR JERRY MITCHELL, Central City, Kentucky:

  This is something we've never even had. This is the first time we've ever had to challenge anything like this. Thank God the surrounding communities have come together with us and helped us out. But the damage, with the daylight coming up, I can't believe how bad it really is.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Large parts of the town were leveled.

• STORM VICTIM:

  The lights started flickering, and my husband had come in about five minutes before and I told him, you know, there was a tornado headed towards us. And my son called me from Bowling Green to see if we were OK.

  And about that time I heard — it sounded like a train coming. Within, like, 30 seconds, it came over us. I mean, we could hear it coming. It was pretty scary.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Seven people died in Kentucky last night, and the governor ordered a National Guard contingent to two parts of the state.

  Taken as a whole, the storms were the deadliest in the U.S. in nearly a decade.