Winter Tornadoes

Cyerice Martin, right, comforts her sister, Seavia Dixon, left, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008 in Akins, Ark., where Dixon's home use to be after a tornado destroyed it Tuesday. A series of twisters tore the roof from a shopping mall, battered mobile homes and laid waste to warehouses in their five-state rampage in the South. At least 47 people were killed and hundreds injured.

Friends of Bonnie Scott's remove items from her storm-destroyed house in Oxford, Miss. on Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008. At least two tornadoes hit north Mississippi on Tuesday, tearing through buildings and homes and ripping down power lines as violent storms pummeled parts of the South, authorities said.

Tornado damage is seen Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008 in Akins, Ark.

Clay and Seavia Dixon pick through the debris of what is left of their tornado damaged home, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008 in Akins, Ark.

A worker inspects the Columbia Gulf Transmission Co. natural gas pumping station in Hartsville, Tenn., Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008, after severe storms went through the area the night before. The facility exploded during the storms.

A funnel cloud of the tornado that touched down in Atkins, Ark., is seen at about 5 p.m. Feb. 5, 2008. The photo was taken outside Atkins High School. Tornadoes across four Southern states tore through homes, ripped the roof off a shopping mall and blew apart warehouses in a rare spasm of violent winter weather.

A Union University student is loaded into an ambulance following a tornado that ripped through the campus, Feb. 5, 2008 in Jackson, Tenn.

An overturned delivery truck blocks an entrance to the Union University campus, in Jackson, Tenn., Feb. 5, 2008.

Rescue personnel attempt to move large sections of a wall to uncover trapped Union University students in the Watter Commons Dormitory, following a tornado that ripped through the campus, Feb. 5, 2008, in Jackson, Tenn.

Rescue personnel bring heavy equipment to help clear the rubble of the Watter Commons dormitory at Union University following a tornado that ripped through the campus, in Jackson, Tenn.

Emergency personnel load one of the students pulled from the collapsed men's dormitory building at Union University after a tornado severely damaged the campus in Jackson, Tenn., Feb. 5, 2008.

Cars and tattered rubble of the Union University dorms stack up following a tornado that ripped through the University campus, Feb. 5, 2008, in Jackson, Tenn.

Pope County Sheriff's Department Lt. Ray Caldwell, front left, gathers rescue personnel and volunteers into groups and assigns them specific areas to search for people trapped or wounded after a tornado passed through Russelville, Ark., Feb. 5, 2008.

Union University students and emergency personnel move the first trapped student out of the rubble of the men's dormitory building after a tornado, Feb. 5, 2008.

Union University staff and students search through the rubble of dormitory buildings destroyed when a tornado passed through the campus in Jackson, Tenn., Feb. 5, 2008.

Medical personnel set up a makeshift triage unit following a tornado that ripped through the Union University campus in Jackson, Tenn., Feb. 5, 2008.

A damaged pharmacy at the corner of North Highland Avenue and University Parkway in Jackson, Tenn., is seen after a tornado passed through West Tennessee, Feb. 5, 2008.

An air-conditioning is unit torn off the Hickory Ridge Mall in Memphis, Tenn., Feb. 5, 2008.

Police survey the damage to a Sears store at the Hickory Ridge Mall in Memphis, Tenn., Feb. 5, 2008.

People walk past damage at a Caterpillar plant in Oxford, Miss., Feb. 5, 2008.