At least five dead, dozens injured as tornadoes rip through U.S. South
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKBN13P0YK

At least five people were killed and dozens were injured after tornadoes
tore through the U.S. South overnight and into Wednesday, leaving
emergency crews scrambling to save lives and assess damage.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued tornado warnings for parts of
Alabama, Florida and Georgia until 6 p.m. EST. Warnings in Mississippi,
Tennessee and Louisiana were lifted earlier on Wednesday.

The storms killed three people in Rosalie, a small community in
northeastern Alabama, where at least one tornado was reported, the NWS said.

A husband and wife were killed in Tennessee's Polk County, the state's
Emergency Management Agency said in a statement. More than two dozen
people have been injured in the state, including at least 23 people in
McMinn County, it said.

In Ider, Alabama, several teenagers were hospitalized after a tornado
flattened a closed daycare center they were using for shelter, said
DeKalb County Sheriff Jimmy Harris, clarifying earlier reports that the
injured were young children.

Ten people in the county were injured, including two critically, and
emergency crews were working to account for all residents, Harris said.

The storm systems also destroyed homes and businesses, downed power
lines and snapped trees.

Several thousand homes were without electricity, local power companies
said. Schools in counties across affected areas canceled classes due to
the outages and structural damage.

Images posted on social media showed giant twisters reaching down into
residential neighborhoods and at least one waterspout spinning offshore
in the beach town of Destin, Florida, on Wednesday afternoon. Others
showed bashed-in houses in Athens, Georgia and toppled electrical pylons
in Ocoee, Tennessee.
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Damage assessment teams from the NWS were surveying the affected areas
throughout the day, it said.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Will Dunham and
Jeffrey Benkoe)