Tornadoes and thunderstorms ravaged four states in the American
South night, killing at least 20 people, injuring dozens and
causing widespread damage, emergency services and local media
said.
The violent storms swept across Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and
Mississippi, overturning trucks, trapping people, and smashing
houses.
Two of the states hit by the tornadoes - Arkansas and Tennessee -
were involved in Super Tuesday as a total of 24 states across the
country held nominating contests ahead of November's presidential
election.
Several candidates expressed condolences to the victims as they
addressed supporters and there were media reports that at least
four polling stations in western Tennessee were closed because of
the storm.
In Arkansas, emergency services reported 11 dead after tornadoes
hit as many as eight counties.
"It's a pretty rough night in the scope of it. I don't know if I
can remember when we've had as many (tornado) warnings and
touchdowns," Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe, said a telephone
interview from an emergency operations centre in North Little
Rock.
The governor's spokesman, Matt DeCample, said there was "no
clue" as to how many were injured. "We're getting answers back in
the multiples, but we're still looking for folks," he said.
In Kentucky, at least three people were killed at a mobile home
park, the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper reported.
Six more died in Tennessee, according to the Nashville Tennessean
newspaper, and more than two dozen others were injured, some
critically.
Widespread damage
Extensive damage in Tennessee included part of a shopping mall in
Memphis and a dormitory at Union University in Jackson, where some
students were trapped for a time but not seriously injured,
according to the website of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The
newspaper quoted a National Weather Service spokesman as saying the
Memphis area had been hit by a "pretty significant tornado."
CNN reported as many as 86 injuries and an unknown number of
fatalities from the storm system, which swept through Arkansas
before moving into Tennessee.
ABC affiliate WAPT in Jackson, Mississippi reported that a 50-foot
(15-metre) wall had collapsed at the Sears store in the Hickory
Ridge Mall in southeast Memphis and a building caught fire along
State Line Road at Airways Boulevard.
Citing local officials, WAPT reported that an unknown number of
people were trapped in a nearby industrial plant.
The Jackson Sun reported that a nursing home had been seriously
damaged but the 114 residents were evacuated with no injuries
reported.
The Nashville Tennessean newspaper, citing the Fayette County
Sheriff's Department, said one man had been found dead north of
Somerville, Tennessee.
The paper reported that the National Weather Service had
recorded a half dozen tornadoes in Tennessee and northern
Mississippi.
It also reported that 60 tractor-trailers had crashed on an
interstate highway.
