Death Toll, The South | featured news

Rescue and relief efforts continue in seven states in the South as hundreds of thousands remain without power. University of Alabama ends school year early. The death toll from this week's tornadoes continued to climb Saturday morning, making the storms fueled by record winds the second worst in history.

Public and private assistance -- in the form of food, tarps and hugs -- began arriving Thursday in storm-battered Southern communities that lost nearly 300 people and saw once-familiar neighborhoods reduced to piles of debris.