Deadly Storms Hit South - WSJ.com

By JOE BARRETT in Chicago and ILAN BRAT in East Prairie, Mo.

Butch Dill/Associated Press

Residents survey the damage after a tornado raked Pratt City, Ala. Wednesday north of Birmingham. Storms killed 40 people across the state.

At least 72 people were killed Wednesday in storms across the South, including 58 in Alabama, where a tornado unleashed some of the heaviest damage on a university town.

Meanwhile, in the Midwest, officials approved plans to blow up a levee, flooding farms but saving towns, should waters continue to rise at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers

Deadly Storms Hit South - WSJ.com