Obama pledges to stand by tornado victims

American President Barack Obama has promised to “stand with the victims” of the country’s deadliest tornado outbreak in almost four decades, which has now claimed the lives of 300 people.

More than six states have been hit with the worst damage in Alabama where yesterday President Obama visited to see the devastation and talk to affected families.

Despite warnings up to 24 minutes before they hit many residents still couldn’t escape as the storms were just too big and too powerful.

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“We can’t control when or where a terrible storm may strike, but we can control how we respond to it,” Mr Obama said. “And I want every American who has been affected by this disaster to know that the federal government will do everything we can to help you recover and we will stand with you as you rebuild.”

The storms obliterated neighbourhoods and towns from Tuscaloosa to Virginia.

Alabama governor Robert Bentley said his state had confirmed 204 deaths. There were 33 deaths in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Kentucky. Hundreds if not thousands of people were injured – 600 in Tuscaloosa alone.

Some of the worst damage was in Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is home to the University of Alabama.

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The storms destroyed the city’s emergency management centre, so the school’s Bryant-Denny Stadium was turned into a makeshift one.

School officials said two students were killed. However, they did not reveal how the two died.

In Phil Campbell, a small town of 1,000 in north-west Alabama where 26 people died, the grocery store, petrol stations and the clinic were destroyed by a tornado that mayor Jerry Mays estimated was a half-a-mile wide and continued on its destructive path for 20 miles.

“We’ve lost everything. Let’s just say it like it is,” Mr Mays said.

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