Alabama
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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano toured areas of ravaged Pratt City on Sunday, promising relief to local residents while also offering her condolences.

"I had the opportunity to walk a few of these streets and I don't think words can fairly express the level of devastation. I'm not articulate enough to describe what I saw," she said. "But what I felt was a tremendous sense of community resilience."

The tornado in Pratt City on Wednesday destroyed at least 1,000 houses, said April Odom, spokeswoman for the City of Birmingham. Throughout Jefferson County, about 5,700 structures were destroyed in the storms, causing an estimated $635 million in damage, Emergency Management Agency officials said Sunday afternoon.

The death toll in Jefferson County stood at 20 Sunday, with 550 injuries. Twenty to 25 people are still missing, said Birmingham Fire Chief I.J. Brooks. While not giving up on finding those people alive, he said, the focus is now on recovery of their bodies.

Across Alabama, where the National Weather Service has confirmed 14 tornadoes moved through the state Wednesday, the death toll stood at 250, including a combined 49 in the metro Birmingham counties of Jefferson, St. Clair, Walker and Bibb.

Around the state, 11 more counties, including St. Clair and Blount, were declared disaster areas late Saturday or Sunday, bringing the total to 28, including Jefferson.

As of early Sunday evening, 44,455 Alabama residents were still without power, down from 56,000 Sunday morning, according to Alabama Power.

Of those without power, 18,464 are in the Birmingham area. Of the remaining customers without power, the most live in Tuscaloosa.

Before meeting with media, Napolitano met briefly with two sisters whose mother died in last week's storms. Stephanie Anderson and Shelia Hurd<CM+NT c.q. -NT> were standing on a slab of concrete on Hibernian Street that used to be 72-year-old Bessie Brewster's home. Across the street, a beat-up Chevrolet Tracker that belonged to Brewster was unidentifiably mangled.

"We're trying to find anything that's hers but there's nothing left here," Hurd said.
"We found some clothes and one of her chairs, but they were across the street."

It took the sisters two days to find their mother, and they went to every hospital multiple times looking for her. Eventually they found her at the county morgue.

"Even if she was dead, I just did not want my mother out there up under the rubble," Hurd said. "We couldn't be in peace until we found her."

'Like a bulldozer'
Anderson and Hurd said they are thankful to all the first responders and relief workers who helped them find their mother and provided them with food and water. As they were going through the rubble, volunteers passed out sandwiches from Firehouse Subs and bottled water.

Napolitano, who was in Birmingham with several members of President Barack Obama's Cabinet, said it was the worst destruction she had seen.

"It was so wide and went so far, it's just like a bulldozer made its way up through Alabama from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham," she said.

Among those with Napolitano in Pratt City was Shaun Donovon, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, who said housing will be the "single most critical part of recovery."

While officials are still surveying the extent of damage to find out exactly how many houses were destroyed, HUD has set up a rapid response unit to make short-term repairs on damaged homes quickly.

"If somebody doesn't have to move out of their house, that is preferable," he said.

As work continues to restore power and remove debris so that homes can begin to be repaired or replaced, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is working with HUD to identify available rental units to help survivors find longer-term shelter, said Craig Fugate, an administrator with FEMA.

FEMA, which has opened six disaster recovery centers in four Alabama counties including Jefferson, is also working with the Army Corps of Engineers to provide temporary home repairs, such as covering broken windows or holes in roofs.

The Small Business Administration is offering individuals and businesses low-interest loans so they can quickly rebuild or repair their damaged homes or replace lost property, said Karen Mills, an administrator with SBA.

Birmingham Mayor William Bell thanked Napolitano and the federal government for their support. He said federal officials called him within 30 minutes of the storm hitting.

"It's brought us all together, regardless of party affiliations," he said. "And we want to thank them for being 'Johnny on the spot' from the beginning."

While Cabinet members and city and state elected officials surveyed the damage, residents and family members continued sorting through debris in search of anything that could be salvaged.

For Dexter Tanniehill, that wasn't much. Although the frame of his brick home on Dugan Avenue was still standing, the inside was blown out.

He was able to find some clothes and salvage a couple of pictures.

"I was on the couch watching the news and was on the phone talking," Tanniehill recalled. "We were joking because (ABC 33/40 meteorologist) James Spann said 'put your helmets on.' I wasn't about to put any helmet on."

But then the power went out and the atmosphere got eerily still. "I went into my basement and got into my car," he said.

When the garage got blown out, he decided perhaps his car wasn't the safest place to be and tried to walk back upstairs.

"But when I tried to push the door open, I couldn't," he said. "The wind was too strong."

It lasted five or six seconds, he said, but it felt like hours.

"I had a beautiful view before," he said, pointing to the back of his house, which now reveals mass destruction that resembles a landfill.

"There's just no words for it."

Tags:  ravaged resilience injuries finding