They have always had a dusty image – and never more so than now – but libraries are at the heart of our communities. With the axe about to fall, Bella Bathurst reveals just what we’re about to lose You can tell a lot about people from the kind of books they steal. Every year, the public library service brings out a
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Saif al-Arab and three of Muammar Gaddafi’s grandsons killed, according to reports – but the Libyan leader was unharmed A Nato air strike in Tripoli has killed the youngest son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, a Libyan government spokesman has said. Saif al-Arab Gaddafi was killed along with three of Muammar Gaddafi’s grandsons, according to reports. The Libyan leader was in the building at the time of the strike, but was unharmed. Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said: “This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country.” “The attack resulted in the martyrdom of brother Saif al-Arab Gaddafi and three of the leader’s grandchildren,” he said. “The leader with his wife was there in the house with other friends and relatives. The leader himself is in good health – he wasn’t harmed.” More details soon … Libya Muammar Gaddafi Middle East guardian.co.uk
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• Chris Huhne urges ‘progressive majority’ to vote yes for AV • Energy secretary says ‘Unite to avoid Thatcher excesses’ Tensions inside the coalition government are at new heights after a Liberal Democrat cabinet minister called on voters to form an anti-Tory alliance in Thursday’s referendum on electoral reform in order to deprive the Conservatives of power. In an extraordinary intervention, Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, has shattered any remaining semblance of cabinet unity by insisting that the referendum is an opportunity for the country’s “progressive majority” to back change and avoid a repeat of the “worst excesses of the Thatcher government”. In a joint article in the Observer , signed by Labour’s shadow business secretary, John Denham, and the leader of the Green party, Caroline Lucas, Huhne and the others argue that the Conservatives were able to monopolise power for much of the 20th century because of an “unfair” first-past-the-post system. “Britain consistently votes as a centre-left country, and yet the Conservatives have dominated our politics for two-thirds of the time since 1900,” the three say. “On only two occasions in that long century – 1900 and 1931 – have the Tories won a majority of the votes. No wonder David Cameron says the current system has ‘served us well’.” They add: “For those who weren’t well served by the Tory 20th century, fair votes matter. They matter for the millions of voters who suffered the worst excesses of the Thatcher government despite more than 54% repeatedly voting against her.” The remarks from Huhne amount to a declaration of war by one of Nick Clegg’s most senior ministers on the Tories’ record in government under Margaret Thatcher – but also an attack on a political philosophy the trio suggest still drives Cameron’s party. They will provoke fury in Conservative ranks, particularly among rightwing Tories who already resent the Lib Dems’ presence in the coalition and their influence over policy. On Thursday, after a campaign that has turned increasingly bitter as the Lib Dem hopes of a yes vote have faded, people will be asked whether they want to ditch the current first-past-the-post system – under which the candidate with most votes wins – in favour of the alternative vote (AV). Under AV, if no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, the one with the least votes is eliminated and their second preferences are distributed among the rest. This process continues until one candidate has a clear majority. Cameron opposes change while the Lib Dems strongly back it, arguing that under AV any MP would have to have the support of at least half of the voters to be elected. The referendum was a central Lib Dem demand in coalition negotiations with the Tories following last year’s general election. Recent polls suggest, however, that the no campaign is ahead, although pollsters admit the result is difficult to call because turnout is expected to be low and many people remain undecided. In an interview with the Observer’ s chief political commentator, Andrew Rawnsley, Clegg accuses the no campaign, backed by Cameron, of spreading “ludicrous bilge” about AV with the deliberate intention of misleading the public. Blaming the prime minister and the chancellor, George Osborne, Clegg says that both men “became very worried that the right of the Conservative party would react very badly if AV wasn’t defeated and they basically decided to throw the kitchen sink at the referendum”. As comedian Eddie Izzard begins a three-day national tour to promote AV, the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, will also renew his call to voters to back AV. “I urge people who are making up their minds to vote for a system which will make for a more accountable House of Commons, fairer votes and a change in our political culture.” Miliband will argue that the Tories, having failed to gain a Commons majority last May, lack an “electoral mandate” for savage spending cuts and radical plans for the NHS, and will urge voters to reject them in Thursday’s council elections and polls for the devolved assemblies. “This week people are being given a chance to deliver a verdict on a year of a Conservative-led government and the willing participation of the Liberal Democrats within it,” the Labour leader will say in a speech on Monday. “Labour has changed as a party since the last election. There is further to go, but we are a party people are coming towards, not turning away from. Thursday is a chance for people to vote for what they value by electing Labour councillors, MSPs and Welsh assembly members.” The Yes to AV campaign will reveal figures on Sunday showing that MPs who enjoy jobs for life in “safe seats” delivered under first-past-the-post earn almost twice as much in outside earnings as those in more marginal seats. Huhne, Denham and Lucas also lump the Tories together with the British National party as opponents of AV. Liberal-Conservative coalition AV referendum Chris Huhne Caroline Lucas John Denham Liberal Democrats Conservatives Alternative vote Toby Helm guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …While it may have happened, I don’t recall any major media raising the question as to whether Karl Rove’s Crossroads was undemocratic. But as you know, anything is worse when Democrats do it. It would have been more useful if this reporter pointed out that, thanks to Citizens United, the Democrats will never catch up to the amount of money raised by these shadowy conservative groups and their affiliates. Or perhaps they might note that Democrats really have no other choice at this point if they want to win elections. ( Sorry, Russ . I’m not happy about it, but I don’t see many other options.) But false equivalence is the most we can expect , I suppose: MANCHESTER, N.H. — A group including former White House officials, union leaders and one of Hollywood’s biggest producers have joined forces to start an outside effort to help President Obama and Congressional Democrats in 2012 by using the very sort of anonymous, unlimited donations from moneyed interests that the president has so deplored. The Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg is also a co-founder of the new aid groups. Co-founded by the former White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton and with seed money from the Service Employees International Union and the film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, the group’s entrée into the early 2012 contest all but ensures that the presidential race will be awash in cash from undisclosed corporate and labor sources with huge stakes in Washington policy making. At the heart of the effort, introduced Friday morning, are two groups: Priorities USA Action, which will engage directly in electioneering backed by donors who will have to be identified but can give unlimited amounts, and Priorities USA, which will advertise about related campaign issues using money from undisclosed sources. The effort is modeled on the one Republicans started last year — with help from the Republican strategist Karl Rove — that attacked Democrats with a barrage of advertisements, mailings and phone calls. It was widely credited with helping the party to take control of the House and diminish the Democrats’ edge in the Senate last fall. One of those groups, Crossroads GPS, was set up under a section of the tax code that allowed its donors to remain anonymous, leading Mr. Obama to refer to such groups collectively as “a threat to democracy” for the way they had shielded corporate interests from view as they sought to sway elections. Democrats had eschewed the formation of such groups last year at Mr. Obama’s public urging, but after the elections in November prominent liberals vowed to form with outside groups of their own to combat the likes of Crossroads. Speaking aboard Air Force One on Friday, the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said that the president’s views had not changed and that the administration had nothing to do with the new groups. “We don’t control outside groups,” Mr. Carney said. “These are not people working for the administration.”
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Adapted from “The Book of (Even More) Awesome” by Neil Pasricha by arrangement with G.P. Putnam’s Sons/Amy Einhorn Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., Copyright © 2011 by Neil Pasricha. Illustrations by Monsieur Cabinet (www.monsieurcabinet.com). Hi Huffington Post readers, My name is Neil Pasricha and I’m a no-name 31-year-old guy who started a tiny blog called 1000 Awesome Things back in June, 2008 with the goal of writing about one awesome thing every weekday. I did this as my world was falling apart. In addition to all the bad news about melting ice caps, swirling hurricanes, and raging wars, like many of us I also had personal issues. My best friend very sadly took his own life and my marriage crumbled like crackers. We sold our house, I moved to a tiny apartment, and I tried to get things back on track by talking about one simple, universal little joy every single day — like snow days, bakery air, or watching “The Price Is Right” when you’re at home sick. When I started 1000 Awesome Things, I got excited when my mom forwarded it to my dad and the traffic doubled. Then I got excited when friends sent it to friends and strangers started sending me suggestions like stepping on dry crunchy leaves on the sidewalk, finally peeing after holding it forever, and landing on a round number when you’re pumping gas. Over time, the site started attracting millions of visitors, winning awards, and landed a book deal. Last Spring The Book of Awesome came out and stuck on bestseller lists for a year straight. Support from The Huffington Post community helped my blog and book grow and I’m massively flattered, thankful, and appreciative for your amazing support. The Book of (Even More) Awesome comes out today and I wanted to share some excerpts from the book. Hope you enjoy them. Thanks for reading and have a great day, Neil
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When her mother died, Kate Lloyd discovered that the person she knew was really someone else. She had walked out on her family after the war, changed her name and reinvented her past. But why? My mother painted a sensational portrait of her early life, saying she had been an orphan brought up by a cruel aunt after her mother was killed in a riding accident and her father died of a broken heart. This was high drama and seemingly played out in the context of landed gentry at least, if not the aristocracy. She said they were Irish Catholics, that she and her sisters had gone to a convent school. She certainly played the part, not that she went to church, but she had a rosary and used to go on about the nuns. She told me her father was moved to tears by music, that he took her to hear a Wagner opera when she was much too young, which was why she didn’t like it. At the time I never doubted what she said, even if it verged on melodrama. When I asked her why one of her toes was a bit squashed, she said: “My race horse stepped on me.” The horse had run away with her and ended up in the centre of Cambridge, and she fell off in one of the colleges. Now it all sounds so improbable. Maybe I should have asked why there were no family photographs, or even any relatives on her side of the family. But my father seems to have accepted her account of things and as I grew up there seemed no reason to question her stories. It wasn’t until much later that I started to realise how odd it sounded. I think one of the reasons she carried it off was that she was an incredibly beautiful woman, and a talented portrait painter. So there was no reason to doubt her claim that she had studied at Chelsea School of Art alongside Dirk Bogarde, when Henry Moore was teaching sculpture there. Friends used to refer to her as the duchess because she behaved like one. She told me that I would be presented at court as a debutante, just as she had been. Of course, I believed her. With hindsight, I can see there were inconsistencies, but you couldn’t query anything. She clammed up as soon as you started talking about her family and changed the subject. She died on New Year’s Day 2007, aged 89, but when my brother and I cleared out her flat there was no birth certificate, which made me curious. So I sent off for it. When I opened the envelope, my first thought was that it was the wrong one because the name was Margaret Ada, whereas my mother had been Margo Adela. But her father’s name – Richard John Beasely – and date of birth were both correct. Then the penny began to drop – this was her birth certificate. At some point she must have changed her name to make it sound more refined. But what shocked me even more was seeing that her father was a fishmonger, her mother a housekeeper and they weren’t even married. The rest of the story began to unfold when I went to the public record office. As Mother had often referred to the fact that she was a twin, the clerk said her sister must be on the same page of the register. That was a spooky moment. We found the twin listed, with the name Janet Kathleen. I’m Dinah Kathleen, so I’d been named after her without ever knowing it. I discovered eight other siblings born outside marriage, all, at some time, living in the family home in Kensington, west London. I also discovered cousins in Minneapolis and Australia and, most astonishing of all, my mother’s younger sister Lily, still alive at the age of 91 and living near me. That was another moment, meeting my aunt for the first time. She didn’t hide the fact that she disliked my mother, saying: “Margaret considered herself better than the rest of us.” Disappointingly, Lily was unable to shed any light on what the family thought had happened to Margaret, or how they lost contact. Did she just disappear overnight? Her version has a lack of clarity, simply because of her age, though it’s clear she was glad to see the back of Mother and I can’t imagine she would have tried very hard to get back in touch. There’s a vague suggestion that people thought Margaret had emigrated to America, which probably suited her. But it was something Lily said about her own life that struck a chord with me. She claims to have fallen out with her own daughter 20 years ago, and they haven’t spoken since. That combative, argumentative nature, and the tendency to bear grudges is a recurring family trait, which I recognise because my mother was also prone to it. Maybe it helps to explain the rift. Lily went into service and later may have worked for a photographer. Some of the details of her life are hazy because she’s become a little forgetful. But what emerges from all the marriage and birth certificates I’ve collected is that all the brothers and sisters except Margo went into manual trades and became plumbers and electricians, and so on, whereas Margo managed to gain access to a much higher social echelon and more financial security than she was destined for at birth. Nowadays, Lily lives in a very modest flat whereas, even after 20 years as a widow, Margo lived in some style. She was always perfectly turned out, with the best clothes, shoes and handbags, and looked immaculate. People outside the family regarded her as charming and elegant. My impression is that Lily’s life was less happy. Though I still have a lot of questions about my mother’s life, it’s clear that from an early age she had the ambition to shed the family and its low social status. It’s sort of sad, even chilling, but at the same time you can admire the cleverness with which she did it. It also explains some of her incredibly fierce opinions. She thought having children outside marriage was terrible. She was absolutely scathing to a friend whose child had children without being married. When I was small, our behaviour had to be perfect. Anybody who said, “Pleased to meet you” rather than, “How do you do?” was beyond the pale and absolutely common. Of course, it came as a tremendous shock when Aunt Lily told me that my grandfather was a boozer and womaniser, but maybe it helps to explain Mother’s distaste for her origins. My father was a comfortably-off doctor in Malvern, so marrying him must have provided the social cachet she yearned for. All the more so because the family was quite gentrified, being directly descended from the founder of Lloyds bank. My paternal grandmother was quite a grande dame and highly intellectual, which made her frightening to me, but I can imagine my mother saw her as a role model. Mother was ill with cancer for her last six years, during which we got closer and closer. Once we were reminiscing about my childhood. I said my first memory was her ticking me off when I was about three. I’d been sitting outside the house with bunches of grape hyacinths I’d picked in the garden, trying to sell them to passersby. And she came and sort of snatched me up and said, “Good gracious, you look like a Gypsy!” We were giggling about that, so I asked, “What do you remember of your mother?” And she snapped, “Nothing!” I just left it, and let it hang, and after quite a long silence she said: “Perhaps I don’t want to remember.” Sometimes I wonder if she actually believed the stories that she’d made up because she told them so often that they were real to her. After she died, I discovered she’d been trying to trace her twin sister online. There’s a terrible pathos about that. Realising she was near the end, maybe she regretted cutting herself off from the family and wanted to see her twin again before she died. In fact, Janet had passed away in 1998. I think perhaps Mother succeeded because of the war and the social disruption it caused. And because she was talented and very beautiful. Part of me thinks she was damned clever to live a lie from 1939 and carry it off. You have to have a bit of admiration for that. She would be very cross with me for digging up her past, but I feel cross with her for keeping it secret. Particularly when we were so close at the end. It’s my heritage as well as hers. To discover cousins that might have been lifelong friends if I’d known them earlier felt strange. I suppose part of me was sad that she didn’t talk about it at the end when I gave her the opportunity. And to think that my grandfather was alive during my lifetime – that I could have met him but was never given the chance. Family Parents and parenting guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …When her mother died, Kate Lloyd discovered that the person she knew was really someone else. She had walked out on her family after the war, changed her name and reinvented her past. But why? My mother painted a sensational portrait of her early life, saying she had been an orphan brought up by a cruel aunt after her mother was killed in a riding accident and her father died of a broken heart. This was high drama and seemingly played out in the context of landed gentry at least, if not the aristocracy. She said they were Irish Catholics, that she and her sisters had gone to a convent school. She certainly played the part, not that she went to church, but she had a rosary and used to go on about the nuns. She told me her father was moved to tears by music, that he took her to hear a Wagner opera when she was much too young, which was why she didn’t like it. At the time I never doubted what she said, even if it verged on melodrama. When I asked her why one of her toes was a bit squashed, she said: “My race horse stepped on me.” The horse had run away with her and ended up in the centre of Cambridge, and she fell off in one of the colleges. Now it all sounds so improbable. Maybe I should have asked why there were no family photographs, or even any relatives on her side of the family. But my father seems to have accepted her account of things and as I grew up there seemed no reason to question her stories. It wasn’t until much later that I started to realise how odd it sounded. I think one of the reasons she carried it off was that she was an incredibly beautiful woman, and a talented portrait painter. So there was no reason to doubt her claim that she had studied at Chelsea School of Art alongside Dirk Bogarde, when Henry Moore was teaching sculpture there. Friends used to refer to her as the duchess because she behaved like one. She told me that I would be presented at court as a debutante, just as she had been. Of course, I believed her. With hindsight, I can see there were inconsistencies, but you couldn’t query anything. She clammed up as soon as you started talking about her family and changed the subject. She died on New Year’s Day 2007, aged 89, but when my brother and I cleared out her flat there was no birth certificate, which made me curious. So I sent off for it. When I opened the envelope, my first thought was that it was the wrong one because the name was Margaret Ada, whereas my mother had been Margo Adela. But her father’s name – Richard John Beasely – and date of birth were both correct. Then the penny began to drop – this was her birth certificate. At some point she must have changed her name to make it sound more refined. But what shocked me even more was seeing that her father was a fishmonger, her mother a housekeeper and they weren’t even married. The rest of the story began to unfold when I went to the public record office. As Mother had often referred to the fact that she was a twin, the clerk said her sister must be on the same page of the register. That was a spooky moment. We found the twin listed, with the name Janet Kathleen. I’m Dinah Kathleen, so I’d been named after her without ever knowing it. I discovered eight other siblings born outside marriage, all, at some time, living in the family home in Kensington, west London. I also discovered cousins in Minneapolis and Australia and, most astonishing of all, my mother’s younger sister Lily, still alive at the age of 91 and living near me. That was another moment, meeting my aunt for the first time. She didn’t hide the fact that she disliked my mother, saying: “Margaret considered herself better than the rest of us.” Disappointingly, Lily was unable to shed any light on what the family thought had happened to Margaret, or how they lost contact. Did she just disappear overnight? Her version has a lack of clarity, simply because of her age, though it’s clear she was glad to see the back of Mother and I can’t imagine she would have tried very hard to get back in touch. There’s a vague suggestion that people thought Margaret had emigrated to America, which probably suited her. But it was something Lily said about her own life that struck a chord with me. She claims to have fallen out with her own daughter 20 years ago, and they haven’t spoken since. That combative, argumentative nature, and the tendency to bear grudges is a recurring family trait, which I recognise because my mother was also prone to it. Maybe it helps to explain the rift. Lily went into service and later may have worked for a photographer. Some of the details of her life are hazy because she’s become a little forgetful. But what emerges from all the marriage and birth certificates I’ve collected is that all the brothers and sisters except Margo went into manual trades and became plumbers and electricians, and so on, whereas Margo managed to gain access to a much higher social echelon and more financial security than she was destined for at birth. Nowadays, Lily lives in a very modest flat whereas, even after 20 years as a widow, Margo lived in some style. She was always perfectly turned out, with the best clothes, shoes and handbags, and looked immaculate. People outside the family regarded her as charming and elegant. My impression is that Lily’s life was less happy. Though I still have a lot of questions about my mother’s life, it’s clear that from an early age she had the ambition to shed the family and its low social status. It’s sort of sad, even chilling, but at the same time you can admire the cleverness with which she did it. It also explains some of her incredibly fierce opinions. She thought having children outside marriage was terrible. She was absolutely scathing to a friend whose child had children without being married. When I was small, our behaviour had to be perfect. Anybody who said, “Pleased to meet you” rather than, “How do you do?” was beyond the pale and absolutely common. Of course, it came as a tremendous shock when Aunt Lily told me that my grandfather was a boozer and womaniser, but maybe it helps to explain Mother’s distaste for her origins. My father was a comfortably-off doctor in Malvern, so marrying him must have provided the social cachet she yearned for. All the more so because the family was quite gentrified, being directly descended from the founder of Lloyds bank. My paternal grandmother was quite a grande dame and highly intellectual, which made her frightening to me, but I can imagine my mother saw her as a role model. Mother was ill with cancer for her last six years, during which we got closer and closer. Once we were reminiscing about my childhood. I said my first memory was her ticking me off when I was about three. I’d been sitting outside the house with bunches of grape hyacinths I’d picked in the garden, trying to sell them to passersby. And she came and sort of snatched me up and said, “Good gracious, you look like a Gypsy!” We were giggling about that, so I asked, “What do you remember of your mother?” And she snapped, “Nothing!” I just left it, and let it hang, and after quite a long silence she said: “Perhaps I don’t want to remember.” Sometimes I wonder if she actually believed the stories that she’d made up because she told them so often that they were real to her. After she died, I discovered she’d been trying to trace her twin sister online. There’s a terrible pathos about that. Realising she was near the end, maybe she regretted cutting herself off from the family and wanted to see her twin again before she died. In fact, Janet had passed away in 1998. I think perhaps Mother succeeded because of the war and the social disruption it caused. And because she was talented and very beautiful. Part of me thinks she was damned clever to live a lie from 1939 and carry it off. You have to have a bit of admiration for that. She would be very cross with me for digging up her past, but I feel cross with her for keeping it secret. Particularly when we were so close at the end. It’s my heritage as well as hers. To discover cousins that might have been lifelong friends if I’d known them earlier felt strange. I suppose part of me was sad that she didn’t talk about it at the end when I gave her the opportunity. And to think that my grandfather was alive during my lifetime – that I could have met him but was never given the chance. Family Parents and parenting guardian.co.uk
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We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Steve, who seems to be proving the College Stereotype wrong in a big way. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com . “I’m a college student and we are updating our intranet / network capabilities at my fraternity. One idea is to create a network drive for backups for each member living in the house. We already have a network drive accessible by everyone wired in (about 40 people via Ethernet cable), so the raw storage and infrastructure is there. What is a good backup software that is cross-platform (Mac and Windows) and free or relatively cheap? Moreover, once the backup software is in place, what steps should be taken to ensure security of each members data? Thanks!” Any software junkies (or frat admins) out there care to chime in? Seems like a common problem, actually, and we’re more than confident that someone sticking to that 4.0 GPA has an answer. Toss yours in comments below. Ask Engadget: best network backup solution for multiple computers? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 22:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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PLEASANT GROVE, Ala. (AP) — Firefighters searched one splintered pile after another for survivors Thursday, combing the remains of houses and neighborhoods pulverized by the nation’s deadliest tornado outbreak in almost four decades. At least 297 people were killed across six states – more than two-thirds of them in Alabama, where large cities bore the half-mile-wide scars the twisters left behind. The death toll from Wednesday’s storms seems out of a bygone era, before Doppler radar and pinpoint satellite forecasts were around to warn communities of severe weather. Residents were told the tornadoes were coming up to 24 minutes ahead of time, but they were just too wide, too powerful and too locked onto populated areas to avoid a horrifying body count. (CLICK HERE to see how you can help relief efforts) “These were the most intense super-cell thunderstorms that I think anybody who was out there forecasting has ever seen,” said meteorologist Greg Carbin at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. “If you experienced a direct hit from one of these, you’d have to be in a reinforced room, storm shelter or underground” to survive, Carbin said. (CLICK HERE for photos of the aftermath) The storms seemed to hug the interstate highways as they barreled along like runaway trucks, obliterating neighborhoods or even entire towns from Tuscaloosa to Bristol, Va. One family rode out the disaster in the basement of a funeral home, another by huddling in a tanning bed. In Concord, a small town outside Birmingham that was ravaged by a tornado, Randy Guyton’s family got a phone call from a friend warning them to take cover. They rushed to the basement garage, piled into a Honda Ridgeline and listened to the roar as the twister devoured the house in seconds. Afterward, they could see outside through the shards of their home and scrambled out. “The whole house caved in on top of that car,” he said. “Other than my boy screaming to the Lord to save us, being in that car is what saved us.” Son Justin remembers the dingy white cloud moving quickly toward the house. “To me it sounded like destruction,” the 22-year-old said. “It was a mean, mean roar. It was awful.” At least three people died in a Pleasant Grove subdivision southwest of Birmingham, where residents trickled back Thursday to survey the damage. Greg Harrison’s neighborhood was somehow unscathed, but he remains haunted by the wind, thunder and lightning as they built to a crescendo, then suddenly stopped. “Sick is what I feel,” he said. “This is what you see in Oklahoma and Kansas. Not here. Not in the South.” Alabama Emergency Management officials said early Friday that the state had 210 confirmed deaths. There were 33 deaths in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky. Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured – nearly 800 in Tuscaloosa alone. Some of the worst damage was about 50 miles southwest of Pleasant Grove in Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is home to the University of Alabama. The storms destroyed the city’s emergency management center, so the school’s Bryant-Denny Stadium was turned into a makeshift one. School officials said two students were killed, though they did not say how they died. Finals were canceled and commencement was postponed. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox told reporters that police and the National Guard will impose a curfew at 10 p.m. Thursday, and 8 p.m. the next night. Authorities have been searching for survivors so far, but Maddox said they will begin using cadaver dogs on Friday. A tower-mounted news camera in Tuscaloosa captured images of an astonishingly thick, powerful tornado flinging debris as it leveled neighborhoods. That twister and others Wednesday were several times more severe than a typical tornado, which is hundreds of yards wide, has winds around 100 mph and stays on the ground for a few miles, said research meteorologist Harold Brooks at the Storm Prediction Center. “There’s a pretty good chance some of these were a mile wide, on the ground for tens of miles and had wind speeds over 200 mph,” he said. The loss of life is the greatest from an outbreak of U.S. tornadoes since April 1974, when the weather service said 315 people were killed by a storm that swept across 13 Southern and Midwestern states. Brooks said the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa could be an EF5 – the strongest category of tornado, with winds of more than 200 mph – and was at least the second-highest category, an EF4. Search and rescue teams fanned out to dig through the rubble of devastated communities that bore eerie similarities to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when town after town lay flattened for nearly 90 miles. In Phil Campbell, a small town of 1,000 in northwest Alabama where 26 people died, the grocery store, gas stations and medical clinic were destroyed by a tornado that Mayor Jerry Mays estimated was a half-mile wide and traveled some 20 miles. “We’ve lost everything. Let’s just say it like it is,” Mays said. “I’m afraid we might have some suicides because of this.” President Barack Obama said he would travel to Alabama on Friday to view storm damage and meet Gov. Robert Bentley and affected families. Late Thursday he signed a disaster declaration for the state to provide federal aid to those who seek it. As many as a million homes and businesses there were without power, and Bentley said 2,000 National Guard troops had been activated to help. The governors of Mississippi and Georgia also issued emergency declarations for parts of their states. “We can’t control when or where a terrible storm may strike, but we can control how we respond to it,” Obama said. “And I want every American who has been affected by this disaster to know that the federal government will do everything we can to help you recover and we will stand with you as you rebuild.” The storm prediction center said it received 164 tornado reports around the region, but some tornadoes were probably reported multiple times and it could take days to get a final count. In fact, Brooks said 50 to 60 reports – from the Mississippi-Alabama line, through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and into Georgia and southwestern Tennessee – might end up being a single tornado. If that’s true its path would be one of the longest on record for a twister, rivaling a 1925 tornado that raged for 219 miles. Brooks said the weather service was able to provide about 24 minutes’ notice before the twisters hit. “It was a well-forecasted event,” Brooks said. “People were talking about this week being a big week a week ago.” Gov. Bentley said forecasters did a good job alerting people, but there’s only so much they can do to help people prepare. Carbin, the meteorologist, noted that the warning gave residents enough time to hunker down, but not enough for them to safely leave the area. “You’ve got half an hour to evacuate the north side of Tuscaloosa. How do you do that and when do you do that? Knowing there’s a tornado on the ground right now and the conditions in advance of it, you may inadvertently put people in harm’s way,” he said. Officials said at least 13 died in Smithville, Miss., where devastating winds ripped open the police station, post office, city hall and an industrial park with several furniture factories. Pieces of tin were twined high around the legs of a blue water tower, and the Piggly Wiggly grocery store was gutted. “It’s like the town is just gone,” said 24-year-old Jessica Monaghan, wiping away tears as she toted 9-month-old son Slade Scott. The baby’s father, Tupelo firefighter Tyler Scott, was at work when the warning came on the TV. WATCH: “It said be ready in 10 minutes, but about that time, it was there,” Monaghan said. She, Slade and the family’s cat survived by hiding in a closet. At Smithville Cemetery, even the dead were not spared: Tombstones dating to the 1800s, including some of Civil War soldiers, lay broken on the ground. Brothers Kenny and Paul Long dragged their youngest brother’s headstone back to its proper place. Unlike many neighboring towns, Kenny Long said, Smithville had no storm shelter. “You have warnings,” Long said, “but where do you go?” Some fled to the sturdy center section of Smithville Baptist Church. Pastor Wes White said they clung to each other and anything they could reach, a single “mass of humanity” as the building disintegrated around them. The second story is gone, the walls collapsed, but no one there was seriously hurt. The choir robes remained in place, perfectly white. Eight people were killed in Georgia’s Catoosa County, including in Ringgold, where a suspected tornado flattened about a dozen buildings and trapped an unknown number of people. “It happened so fast I couldn’t think at all,” said Tom Rose, an Illinois truck driver whose vehicle was blown off the road at I-75 North in Ringgold, near the Tennessee line. Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers said several residential areas had “nothing but foundations left,” and that some people reported missing had yet to be found. A church in Ringgold had its steeple amputated, and its chairs were left twisted and piled in the apartments’ parking lot. Elsewhere in the town, cars and pickup trucks sat askew at odd angles after being tossed like toys. In Trenton, Ga., nearly two dozen people took shelter in an Ace Hardware store, including a couple walking by when an employee emerged and told them to take cover immediately. Lisa Rice, owner of S&L Tans in Trenton, survived by climbing into a tanning bed with her two daughters. Stormy, 19, and Sky, 21. “We got in it and closed it on top of us,” Rice said. “Sky said, `We’re going to die.’ But, I said, `No, just pray. Just pray, just pray, just pray.’” For 30 seconds, wind rushed around the bed and debris flew as wind tore off the roof. “Then it just stopped. It got real quiet. We waited a few minutes and then opened up the bed and we saw daylight,” she said. The badly damaged Moore Funeral Home, meanwhile, sheltered the woman who cleans Larry Moore’s family business. When the first of three storms hit and uprooted trees in her yard, she figured the funeral home would be a safer place for her two children. As shingles began sailing past the window, she headed for the basement. “That’s what saved her, I guess,” Moore said. “It was over in just a matter of seconds. She called 911 and emergency crews had to help her get out.” The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out. In a large section of eastern Tennessee, officials were looking for survivors and assessing damage. In hard-hit Apison, an unincorporated community near the Georgia state line where eight people died, about 150 volunteers helped with the search. It was unclear how high the death toll could rise. In Mississippi, Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson and a crew of deputies and inmates searched the rubble, recovering five bodies and marking homes that still had bodies inside with two large orange Xs. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Johnson said. “This is something that no one can prepare for.” ___ Mohr reported from Phil Campbell, Ala. Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Tuscaloosa; Phillip Rawls in Montgomery; Vicki Smith in Morgantown, W.Va.; Kristi Eaton in Norman, Okla.; Ray Henry in Ringgold, Ga.; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C.; Michelle Williams in Atlanta; and Bill Poovey in Chattanooga, Tenn., contributed to this report.
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PLEASANT GROVE, Ala. (AP) — Firefighters searched one splintered pile after another for survivors Thursday, combing the remains of houses and neighborhoods pulverized by the nation’s deadliest tornado outbreak in almost four decades. At least 297 people were killed across six states – more than two-thirds of them in Alabama, where large cities bore the half-mile-wide scars the twisters left behind. The death toll from Wednesday’s storms seems out of a bygone era, before Doppler radar and pinpoint satellite forecasts were around to warn communities of severe weather. Residents were told the tornadoes were coming up to 24 minutes ahead of time, but they were just too wide, too powerful and too locked onto populated areas to avoid a horrifying body count. (CLICK HERE to see how you can help relief efforts) “These were the most intense super-cell thunderstorms that I think anybody who was out there forecasting has ever seen,” said meteorologist Greg Carbin at the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. “If you experienced a direct hit from one of these, you’d have to be in a reinforced room, storm shelter or underground” to survive, Carbin said. (CLICK HERE for photos of the aftermath) The storms seemed to hug the interstate highways as they barreled along like runaway trucks, obliterating neighborhoods or even entire towns from Tuscaloosa to Bristol, Va. One family rode out the disaster in the basement of a funeral home, another by huddling in a tanning bed. In Concord, a small town outside Birmingham that was ravaged by a tornado, Randy Guyton’s family got a phone call from a friend warning them to take cover. They rushed to the basement garage, piled into a Honda Ridgeline and listened to the roar as the twister devoured the house in seconds. Afterward, they could see outside through the shards of their home and scrambled out. “The whole house caved in on top of that car,” he said. “Other than my boy screaming to the Lord to save us, being in that car is what saved us.” Son Justin remembers the dingy white cloud moving quickly toward the house. “To me it sounded like destruction,” the 22-year-old said. “It was a mean, mean roar. It was awful.” At least three people died in a Pleasant Grove subdivision southwest of Birmingham, where residents trickled back Thursday to survey the damage. Greg Harrison’s neighborhood was somehow unscathed, but he remains haunted by the wind, thunder and lightning as they built to a crescendo, then suddenly stopped. “Sick is what I feel,” he said. “This is what you see in Oklahoma and Kansas. Not here. Not in the South.” Alabama Emergency Management officials said early Friday that the state had 210 confirmed deaths. There were 33 deaths in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky. Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured – nearly 800 in Tuscaloosa alone. Some of the worst damage was about 50 miles southwest of Pleasant Grove in Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is home to the University of Alabama. The storms destroyed the city’s emergency management center, so the school’s Bryant-Denny Stadium was turned into a makeshift one. School officials said two students were killed, though they did not say how they died. Finals were canceled and commencement was postponed. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox told reporters that police and the National Guard will impose a curfew at 10 p.m. Thursday, and 8 p.m. the next night. Authorities have been searching for survivors so far, but Maddox said they will begin using cadaver dogs on Friday. A tower-mounted news camera in Tuscaloosa captured images of an astonishingly thick, powerful tornado flinging debris as it leveled neighborhoods. That twister and others Wednesday were several times more severe than a typical tornado, which is hundreds of yards wide, has winds around 100 mph and stays on the ground for a few miles, said research meteorologist Harold Brooks at the Storm Prediction Center. “There’s a pretty good chance some of these were a mile wide, on the ground for tens of miles and had wind speeds over 200 mph,” he said. The loss of life is the greatest from an outbreak of U.S. tornadoes since April 1974, when the weather service said 315 people were killed by a storm that swept across 13 Southern and Midwestern states. Brooks said the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa could be an EF5 – the strongest category of tornado, with winds of more than 200 mph – and was at least the second-highest category, an EF4. Search and rescue teams fanned out to dig through the rubble of devastated communities that bore eerie similarities to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when town after town lay flattened for nearly 90 miles. In Phil Campbell, a small town of 1,000 in northwest Alabama where 26 people died, the grocery store, gas stations and medical clinic were destroyed by a tornado that Mayor Jerry Mays estimated was a half-mile wide and traveled some 20 miles. “We’ve lost everything. Let’s just say it like it is,” Mays said. “I’m afraid we might have some suicides because of this.” President Barack Obama said he would travel to Alabama on Friday to view storm damage and meet Gov. Robert Bentley and affected families. Late Thursday he signed a disaster declaration for the state to provide federal aid to those who seek it. As many as a million homes and businesses there were without power, and Bentley said 2,000 National Guard troops had been activated to help. The governors of Mississippi and Georgia also issued emergency declarations for parts of their states. “We can’t control when or where a terrible storm may strike, but we can control how we respond to it,” Obama said. “And I want every American who has been affected by this disaster to know that the federal government will do everything we can to help you recover and we will stand with you as you rebuild.” The storm prediction center said it received 164 tornado reports around the region, but some tornadoes were probably reported multiple times and it could take days to get a final count. In fact, Brooks said 50 to 60 reports – from the Mississippi-Alabama line, through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and into Georgia and southwestern Tennessee – might end up being a single tornado. If that’s true its path would be one of the longest on record for a twister, rivaling a 1925 tornado that raged for 219 miles. Brooks said the weather service was able to provide about 24 minutes’ notice before the twisters hit. “It was a well-forecasted event,” Brooks said. “People were talking about this week being a big week a week ago.” Gov. Bentley said forecasters did a good job alerting people, but there’s only so much they can do to help people prepare. Carbin, the meteorologist, noted that the warning gave residents enough time to hunker down, but not enough for them to safely leave the area. “You’ve got half an hour to evacuate the north side of Tuscaloosa. How do you do that and when do you do that? Knowing there’s a tornado on the ground right now and the conditions in advance of it, you may inadvertently put people in harm’s way,” he said. Officials said at least 13 died in Smithville, Miss., where devastating winds ripped open the police station, post office, city hall and an industrial park with several furniture factories. Pieces of tin were twined high around the legs of a blue water tower, and the Piggly Wiggly grocery store was gutted. “It’s like the town is just gone,” said 24-year-old Jessica Monaghan, wiping away tears as she toted 9-month-old son Slade Scott. The baby’s father, Tupelo firefighter Tyler Scott, was at work when the warning came on the TV. WATCH: “It said be ready in 10 minutes, but about that time, it was there,” Monaghan said. She, Slade and the family’s cat survived by hiding in a closet. At Smithville Cemetery, even the dead were not spared: Tombstones dating to the 1800s, including some of Civil War soldiers, lay broken on the ground. Brothers Kenny and Paul Long dragged their youngest brother’s headstone back to its proper place. Unlike many neighboring towns, Kenny Long said, Smithville had no storm shelter. “You have warnings,” Long said, “but where do you go?” Some fled to the sturdy center section of Smithville Baptist Church. Pastor Wes White said they clung to each other and anything they could reach, a single “mass of humanity” as the building disintegrated around them. The second story is gone, the walls collapsed, but no one there was seriously hurt. The choir robes remained in place, perfectly white. Eight people were killed in Georgia’s Catoosa County, including in Ringgold, where a suspected tornado flattened about a dozen buildings and trapped an unknown number of people. “It happened so fast I couldn’t think at all,” said Tom Rose, an Illinois truck driver whose vehicle was blown off the road at I-75 North in Ringgold, near the Tennessee line. Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers said several residential areas had “nothing but foundations left,” and that some people reported missing had yet to be found. A church in Ringgold had its steeple amputated, and its chairs were left twisted and piled in the apartments’ parking lot. Elsewhere in the town, cars and pickup trucks sat askew at odd angles after being tossed like toys. In Trenton, Ga., nearly two dozen people took shelter in an Ace Hardware store, including a couple walking by when an employee emerged and told them to take cover immediately. Lisa Rice, owner of S&L Tans in Trenton, survived by climbing into a tanning bed with her two daughters. Stormy, 19, and Sky, 21. “We got in it and closed it on top of us,” Rice said. “Sky said, `We’re going to die.’ But, I said, `No, just pray. Just pray, just pray, just pray.’” For 30 seconds, wind rushed around the bed and debris flew as wind tore off the roof. “Then it just stopped. It got real quiet. We waited a few minutes and then opened up the bed and we saw daylight,” she said. The badly damaged Moore Funeral Home, meanwhile, sheltered the woman who cleans Larry Moore’s family business. When the first of three storms hit and uprooted trees in her yard, she figured the funeral home would be a safer place for her two children. As shingles began sailing past the window, she headed for the basement. “That’s what saved her, I guess,” Moore said. “It was over in just a matter of seconds. She called 911 and emergency crews had to help her get out.” The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out. In a large section of eastern Tennessee, officials were looking for survivors and assessing damage. In hard-hit Apison, an unincorporated community near the Georgia state line where eight people died, about 150 volunteers helped with the search. It was unclear how high the death toll could rise. In Mississippi, Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson and a crew of deputies and inmates searched the rubble, recovering five bodies and marking homes that still had bodies inside with two large orange Xs. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Johnson said. “This is something that no one can prepare for.” ___ Mohr reported from Phil Campbell, Ala. Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Tuscaloosa; Phillip Rawls in Montgomery; Vicki Smith in Morgantown, W.Va.; Kristi Eaton in Norman, Okla.; Ray Henry in Ringgold, Ga.; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C.; Michelle Williams in Atlanta; and Bill Poovey in Chattanooga, Tenn., contributed to this report.
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