• 20:26
  • Tuesday ,19 April 2011
العربية

Death toll from southern U.S. storms climbs to 45

By-CNN

International News

00:04

Tuesday ,19 April 2011

Death toll from southern U.S. storms climbs to 45

(CNN) -- Virginia and North Carolina emergency and clean up crews on Monday continued their work assisting the displaced, restoring power to hundreds of thousands of customers and confirming the storm-related deaths of dozens of people.

The total number of people reported killed during a wave of severe storms across the South now stands at 45. That includes six victims in Virginia and 22 in North Carolina, according to emergency management agencies in both states.
 
Photo gallery: Damage from tornado outbreak
 
States of emergency have been declared in both Virginia and North Carolina.
 
In Waynesboro, Virginia, rescue crews on Sunday recovered the body of 8-year-old Lacy Elizabeth Taylor more than a half mile away from the bridge where she and two companions were caught in a flash flood the previous day.
 
One companion, a 9-year-old boy, was rescued by a bystander, but the other, Tina Marie Allen, 41, drowned after being swept away by the floodwaters, Waynesboro police said.
 
The Virginia Department of Emergency Management on Sunday reported severe weather killed a Wythe County resident. The agency said Saturday that three people were killed by storms in Gloucester County.
 
Official confirmation that all six deaths resulted from severe weather is pending a report from the state medical examiner's office, said VDEM public outreach coordinator Laura Southard early Monday.
 
iReport photos: Damage in N.C.
 
Meanwhile, the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management on Sunday reported 22 people were killed and 80 were injured by the storms in Bertie, Bladen, Cumberland, Harnett, Lee and Wake counties. Local law enforcement authorities said 11 of the deaths were in Bertie County.
 
iReport: Drive-by look at Raleigh damage
 
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center said it received reports of at least 230 tornadoes across the region during the past three days, though some of those reports were likely sightings of the same twister.
 
Including North Carolina and Virginia, the storms destroyed buildings, uprooted trees, downed power lines and killed people in six Southern states.
 
iReport photos: Lightning strike in Alabama
 
Arkansas and Alabama authorities each reported seven deaths, two were killed in Oklahoma and one died in Mississippi.