FEMA watched closely after deadly twisters

Local and state officials warned Wednesday that they would not tolerate a slow response from the federal government after the deadliest wave of tornadoes in a decade killed at least 55 people across the South, 31 of them in Tennessee alone.

President Bush planned a visit Friday to Tennessee, the hardest hit of five states where residents were trying to salvage what they could from homes reduced to piles of debris. More than 150 other people were injured, and thousands were left without power after as many as 50 twisters were reported in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., echoed the concerns of numerous government officials in the affected states when he recalled the sluggishness with which the Federal Emergency Management Agency responded to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He told FEMA Director David Paulison on Wednesday that he would “not tolerate a slow reaction time.”

“FEMA must not use bureaucratic excuses to avoid helping Arkansans,” Pryor said in a letter to Paulison.

Bush promised that the federal government would step up to the plate this time, calling the governors of all five affected states and vowing to help “in any way we can.”

“This is a bad storm that affected a lot of people in a variety of states,” Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for his new secretary of agriculture. “Our administration is reaching out to state officials.”

Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Homeland Security Department, which oversees FEMA, said he took the concerns seriously and was personally consulting with state officials to make sure they got what they needed.

Representatives of FEMA were already in the five affected states to assess what help was needed, said James McIntyre, a spokesman for the agency. Basic supplies, such as water and food, were on their way to hard-hit areas, he said, adding that vehicles with high-tech communications equipment had been sent to heavily damaged Lafayette, Tenn.

Worst tornado impact in two decades
The Associated Press reported that the death toll was the highest in an outbreak of tornadoes since 76 people were killed in Pennsylvania and Ohio on May 31, 1985.

“This is one of the most impressive February outbreaks ever,” said Bill Karins, a meteorologist with NBC Weather Plus, who said the worst impact was in Arkansas and Tennessee.

Tennessee emergency management officials said 31 people died in the state overnight.

Video   Path of destruction Feb. 6: The death toll continued to climb a day after the deadliest tornado outbreak in almost a decade swept across four southern states. NBC's Lester Holt reports. Nightly News

“I’ve been working 34 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Keith Scruggs, emergency management director in Macon County, Tenn., where 12 people were reported to have been killed.

“Roads are blocked. It’s massive. We can’t tell the extent of the damage yet,” Scruggs said. “They have search teams going out now to check subdivision developments, housing and more rural areas.”

The state Highway Patrol reported looting in Macon County, said Julie Oaks, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

“Obviously, that’s not something that needs to be going on,” she said. “If people are caught looting, they will go to jail.”

‘Two seconds later, our house was gone’
Ferena Farrington of Antioch, Tenn., described taking cover with her family one minute, then being flung through the air the next before landing in a neighbor’s yard.

Farrington broke her back in the fall and was being treated at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville. Her husband suffered a broken pelvis and was being treated at a hospital in Bowling Green, Ky. The couple’s baby was not injured.

“I really closed my eyes as tight as I could, and I really just prayed to God that, you know, He would just keep us safe and hang on to us,” Farrington said, according to NBC affiliate WSMV of Nashville.

“It was scary. It was very scary. They say it literally sounds like a freight train coming, and it did,” she said. “It was really quiet, then two seconds later, our house was gone.”

Northeast of Nashville, a spectacular fire erupted at a natural gas pumping station. The station took a direct hit from the storm, but no deaths connected to the fire were reported.

Jackson, Tenn., was hit with an extraordinarily powerful Force 4 tornado packing winds above 207 mph, which trapped 16 people in a damaged dormitory at Union University until rescuers could dig them out, NBC News’ Terry Pickard reported. Tim Ellsworth, the college’s news director, said about 50 students were taken to hospitals, nine of them seriously injured.

“It was really scary looking around, and people crying, blood on their faces and soaking it all in, thinking it was a nightmare,” said Natalie West, a sophomore at the university.

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