The severe storm system that moved across the country yesterday killed at least 20 people — and that number could move higher. In Alabama, state officials got their first look at the destruction caused by a tornado in the state's southeast corner.
Enterprise, Ala., was particularly hard hit; eight students at the local high school died when their building's roof and walls collapsed on them.
A question asked repeatedly today is whether school leaders could have done more to protect students like 17-year-old Dylan Lewis, who was in Enterprise High School's third hall, the one where most of the fatalities occurred.
"I just remember hearing glass break and stuff hitting the wall behind me," Lewis says, "and I was hoping it would stop right then and there, but then I felt the wall behind me give out and everything just fell and started hitting me and falling on me."
Officials in other parts of the state closed schools as early as 11 a.m. Thursday; Enterprise scheduled its early dismissal for 1 p.m. — just minutes after the twister struck. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley says the school's leaders made the best decision they could at the time.
"You have to remember that if we had let the school out early a lot of these kids would have gone home," Riley says. "They wouldn't have had any parents there. They would have been alone. A lot of these children would have gone into facilities that probably aren't as structurally sound as here."
Today, the school is a mangled mess. Gov. Riley and other state officials stepped over chunks of insulation, blown out windows, and lots of debris.
"If there was a miracle that happened here," one school official said, "it was in our science wing, which was totally devastated. We didn't lose a person out here."
Later Thursday, as the storm moved into Georgia, there were more tornadoes; at least six people died as a result.
Affected residents across the southern United States are anxiously awaiting disaster declarations to help with rebuilding. President Bush will tour the affected areas Saturday.
Tanya Ott of WBHM reports from Enterprise.
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