At least 15 dead as storms pound South for 2nd day

[Beaverhausen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110427/ap_on_re_us/us_severe_weather

By HOLBROOK MOHR and JAY REEVES, Associated Press – 7 mins ago

JEFF BUSBY PARK, Miss. – A wave of thunderstorms with winds blowing near hurricane force strafed the South on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people from Arkansas to Alabama, including a father struck by a tree while protecting his daughter at a Mississippi campsite.

The system laced with tornadoes spread destruction Tuesday night and Wednesday from Texas to Georgia. An earlier flare-up of storms this week had already killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.

Forecasters warned that even worse weather could be on its way. The system was forecast to hit Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky on Wednesday night and then the Carolinas.

"Today is the day you want to be careful," said Greg Carbin of the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma.

On Wednesday morning, a Louisiana police officer on a camping trip in Choctaw County, Miss., was killed when a towering sweetgum tree fell onto his tent as he shielded his young daughter with his body, said Kim Korthuis, a supervisor with the National Park Service.

The girl wasn't hurt.

The 9-year-old girl was brought to a motorhome about 100 feet away where campsite volunteer Greg Maier was staying with his wife, Maier said. He went back to check on the father and found him dead.

"She wasn't hurt, just scared and soaking wet," Maier said.

Her father, Lt. Wade Sharp, had been with the Covington Police Department for 19 years.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. There are now 40 tornado warnings across the nation right now

says twitter at #tornado.

Unbelievable.

[Poll_Blind]

2. That makes me just about cry, I only hope he knew his daughter was safe before he died.

It makes me very, very sad that things like this happen. Very sad.

PB

[Beaverhausen]

3. story has been updated- now 16 dead

:cry: