Military helicopters evacuate the injured from the high school after the tornado struck Thursday.
The news media hasn't been allowed inside the tornado-ravaged school building here in Enterprise, Alabama. But I can say that every public official who goes in there and comes out seems absolutely stunned that more people weren't hurt.
As I look around the school yard and see all the twisted metal and snapped trees, it seems to me that the evidence is all around us that if anybody had tried to leave the school and been caught in the open or in their cars by this tornado, then they probably would not have had a chance.
When I drove here today, I passed through a neighborhood behind the school. There was that telltale smell I always encounter when I am on the scene of a tornado -- the smell of fresh cut lumber. This is due to the chainsaws that always show up on the scene almost immediately to take down shattered trees and clear tree limbs off roads.
There were also a number of cars with flat tires, which is typical. When roofs peel off buildings during a tornado, you have nails and sharp pieces of metal all over the place. People drive over those and flatten their tires.
One government official said that this looks like an F3 or possibly F4 tornado. What struck me is that he said one rarely sees tornados this strong and this big this far south. He said this tornado was 200 yards wide.
The school was a direct hit, and still, officials are saying that the school was probably the safest place these kids could have been.
