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Toll Hits 47 in Southern Storms

Tornadoes, rain, hail pelt the region

By Polly Davis Doig, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 17, 2011 6:14 AM CDT | Updated Apr 17, 2011 7:24 AM CDT

(Newser) – A devastating storm system ripped its way through the South yesterday, pummeling the region with tornadoes, flash flooding, and hail the size of softballs. The death toll shot up today to at least 47, reports NBC News, with emergency crews searching for more victims in hard-hit areas of Virginia and North Carolina. The latter alone saw 24 fatalities and declared an emergency after it weathered at least 62 tornadoes and the worst storm in 27 years, reports the AP. The death toll is expected to rise.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody in North Carolina who has been through this horrible day," said North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue. A tornado ripped a 12- to 14-mile path through Virginia's coastal Gloucester County, where three deaths have been confirmed, along with 60 injuries. A tornado levelled a Lowes in Sanford, NC, where a manager herded 100 employees and customers into a back room. There were no injuries there.

(Amanda Sowards)

A tornado flattened most of this home in Fayetteville, NC, Saturday, April 16, 2011. Homes were badly damaged by a severe storm system that brought flash floods, hail and reports of tornadoes. (James Robinson)

Lowes employees stands in the parking lot of the store after it was hit by a tornado in Sanford, NC, Saturday, April 16, 2011. (Jim R. Bounds)

Jeffrey Tan, 13, left, sits on the tree that fell on his great-grandmother Jessie Rogers' house on Sparrow Pond Lane off Penny Road, Saturday, April 16, 2011 in Raleigh, NC. (CHRIS SEWARD)

An auto repair shop on South Saunders Street lost the back wall and roof after a tornado ripped through the area, Saturday, April 16, 2011 in Raleigh, NC. (Robert Willett)

Patrick Woods, a freshman at Pine Forest High School, picks up a flag on the remains on the softball field at Pine Forest High School on Saturday, April 16, 2011 in Fayetteville, NC. (Michael Conti)

Bill Mosley urges daughter Lisa to walk carefully through the spare bedroom lest she step on a roofing nail as the two gather possessions in the damaged house in Clinton, Miss., Friday, April 15, 2011. (Rogelio V. Solis)

Only stairs and flowers remain Saturday, April 16, 2011 after severe winds tore a mobile home off its lot late Friday night in Boone's Chapel, Ala., in Autauga County. (Amanda Sowards)

Emergency personnel enters a Lowes after it was hit by a tornado in Sanford, NC, Saturday, April 16, 2011. (Jim R. Bounds)

Emergency personnel confer in front of Lowes Home Improvement after it was hit by a tornado in Sanford, NC, Saturday, April 16, 2011. (Jim R. Bounds)

Stony Brook North Mobile Home residents evacuate from the property after sever tornado passed through the area Saturday, April 16, 2011 in Raleigh, NC. (TAKAAKI IWABU)

Lowes employees leave the scene of their destroyed store on South Horner Blvd., on Saturday, April 16 2011, in Sanford, NC. (Scott Sharpe)

A Lowes employee stands in the parking lot of the store after it was hit by a tornado in Sanford, NC, Saturday, April 16, 2011. (Jim R. Bounds)

Will Harrison's flag hangs from a fallen tree after it was blown off his house when a tornado ripped through the Cottonade neighborhood Saturday, April 16, 2011 in Fayetteville, NC. (Andrew Craft)

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Toll Hits 47 in Southern Storms

Tornadoes, rain, hail pelt the region

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