Alabama Tornado Pictures: Mile-Wide "Monster" Slams Towns

"Silent Monster" Tornado

Photograph by Dusty Compton, Tuscaloosa News/AP

Widely reported to be a mile (1.6 kilometers) wide, a tornado barrels through Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Wednesday. Tuscaloosa resident James Sykes told CNN the massive twister was "like a silent monster."

"It was just moving at a steady rate and just demolishing everything in its path."

(Learn what happens inside a twister.)

Published April 28, 2011

Tornado Survivors

Photograph by Dusty Compton, Tuscaloosa News/AP

Emergency responders assist a family displaced by a tornado near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Wednesday.

As of Thursday morning, 36 people have died in Tuscaloosa, one of the hardest hit cities, Mayor Walter Maddox told CNN.

"I don't know how anyone survived," CNN reported Maddox as saying.

"We're used to tornadoes here in Tuscaloosa. It's part of growing up. But when you look at the path of destruction that's likely 5 to 7 miles [8 to 11 kilometers] long in an area half a mile to a mile [0.8 to 1.6 kilometers] wide ... It's an amazing scene."

(See tornado pictures.)

Published April 28, 2011

Alabama City in Ruins

Photograph by Dusty Compton, Tuscaloosa News/AP

On Wednesday a cyclist passes homes and businesses destroyed by a tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, earlier in the day.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Maddox told CNN that the twister "literally obliterated blocks and blocks of the city."

The devastation was "unparalleled ... The city's infrastructure has been absolutely decimated."

(Read about tornado chasers.)

Published April 28, 2011

Too Close to Home

Photograph by Butch Dill, AP

Remains of a kitchen lie exposed on Thursday, a day after a tornado destroyed this house and others in Pleasant Grove, near Birmingham, Alabama.

The Birmingham neighborhood of Pratt City and the suburb of Pleasant Grove were among the most devastated, CNN reported.

Red Cross spokesperson Chris Osborne told CNN the number of ambulances on the street in Birmingham "is just like taxicabs in New York."

"It's just back and forth to area hospitals," Osborne said. "It's really just an incredible sight to see."

(Take a natural-disasters quiz.)

Published April 28, 2011

After the Tornado

Photograph by Dusty Compton, Tuscaloosa News/AP

On Wednesday, people roam streets leveled by a tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, earlier that day.

On Thursday, "except for the sirens, [Tuscaloosa] had an eerie quiet … ," Brian Wilhite, an internist at Tuscaloosa's Druid City Hospital, told CNN.

"It looks like an atomic bomb went off in a straight line. [The damage is] probably close to a mile [1.6 kilometer] wide."

(Watch: "Tornadoes, Lightning in Rare Video.")

Published April 28, 2011

Searching the Remains

Photograph by Butch Dill, AP

Vicki Wood searches what's left of her daughter's home on April 28, the day after a tornado hit Pleasant Grove, a neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama.

This week's spate of U.S. twisters is being compared to the "super outbreak" of tornadoes on April 3 and 4, 1974, U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate told CNN.

At that time, 148 tornadoes were reported in 13 states, and 330 people died.

ON TV: Witness: Tornado Swarm 2011 airs Sunday, May 29, 9 p.m. ET/PT >>

Published April 28, 2011