Storm Death Now at Least 55
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Storm Death Now at Least 55
Rescuers were searching for more victims Wednesday after storms ripped through Southern states, killing 55.
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(February 6, 2008)--Crews are searching for victims of a line of violent tornadoes in the South. At least 55 people are dead.

The storms tore a roof from a shopping mall and shattered warehouses. university dorm.

Scores of people have been hurt.

The storms also damaged a dormitory at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., trapping students who talked by phone to rescuers who were trying to dig them out.

The governor of Arkansas calls it "an extraordinary night."

In Southaven, Miss., a police official describes the damage at an industrial warehouse as looking "like a bomb went off."

Officials in Tennessee say firefighters have contained a massive blaze at a natural gas pumping station that broke out after a strong storm moved through the area.

The fire erupted late Tuesday night at the Columbia Gulf Transmission Company pumping station near Green Grove, about 40 miles northeast of Nashville.

The blaze sent flames hundreds of feet into the air.

The station is used to boost pressure along the gas line that runs from Louisiana to the West Virginia-Kentucky border.

A resident about five miles from the station says the windows in her apartment shook violently and "the city looked like it was on fire."

Meanwhile, swollen rivers and creeks at their breaking point have prompted flood warnings for several counties in western and northern Ohio.

In the northwest city of Findlay, residents are preparing for another flood just months after the city was swamped by historic levels of water that split the city in half.

Officials say rain, melting snow and frozen ground create perfect conditions for floods.

Flooding is also expected in Waterville and near Toledo.

The Grand River in Painesville, east of Cleveland, is above flood stage and still rising.

Flood warnings are also out for portions of other rivers in southwest Ohio.

Some residents of two northern Indiana counties evacuated homes along the Tippecanoe River for the second time in less than a month Tuesday after melting snow and heavy rains again threatened to swamp their homes.