document: Rescuers crawled through collapsed homes and shops today looking for more victims of a tornado that carved a 3-mile stretch of destruction , killing 17 people , injuring 463 and leaving 1,000 homeless . `` It 's like taking six to 10 city blocks and putting them in a blender and putting it on liquefy , '' said rescue worker Bob Caraway , whose specialty is cave rescues . He was among those called out to help dig through rubble for survivors or the bodies of the dead . The tornado was one of a series that touched down Wednesday in an arc spanning at least seven states from the Deep South to the Midwest . The other tornadoes caused at least 19 injuries and far-flung property damage . In Huntsville , teams with cranes and floodlights searched for the injured or dead , hampered by wind-whipped rain and temperatures that plummeted overnight from 73 degrees into the 30s . Gov. Guy Hunt sent 50 National Guardsmen to help and said he would view damage Friday . His spokesman , Terry Abbott , said aerial surveys indicate the twister hopped along a 25-mile path , much of it straight through Huntsville . By this afternoon , severe thunderstorms were crossing the Northeast . The National Weather Service put out a tornado watch for parts of Maryland , Delaware , Pennsylvania , New Jersey , New York , all of Connecticut and Rhode Island , and parts of Massachusetts , Vermont and New Hampshire . In Pennsylvania , the weather service said it received unconfirmed reports of a tornado that turned over a car and knocked down trees and power lines near Gettysburg . Elsewhere : _ In Georgia , 19 people were injured , four critically , and at least 200 people were evacuated after a tornado strus.C. , and a tornado toppled trees , downed power lines and damaged 20 houses near Greenwood , S.C. No injuries were reported in either state . _ Tornadoes caused minor property damage in Mississippi , Kentucky and Indiana . _ In West Virginia , high winds believed to be tornadoes swept Jefferson County early today , overturning trailers , blowing roofs off homes and downing power lines , authorities said . Four people were injured , two seriously . _ Heavy thunderstorms destroyed at least a dozen homes in Alorton , Ill. , killing one person and injuring 20 others , five seriously , authorities said . The tornado struck Huntsville with virtually no warning Wednesday afternoon as the city 's streets grew busy with the approach of rush hour . In a matter of seconds , cars were hurled through the air and crushed , and apartments and stores looked as if they had been bombed . `` It was fast , '' said Lucy Lee Rusk , whose apartment was battered by debris . `` It was like one big pop and that 's when everything went . '' The National Weather Service had issued a tornado watch earlier in the day , but did not issue a more urgent tornado warning until 4:39 p.m. CST , when the tornado was spotted at the municipal golf course . By then , it was already tearing up the city . A watch means a tornado is considered possible , while a warning means a tornado is believed to exist . Huntsville Police Maj. Robert Moder said this morning that 463 people were injured by the twister , which plowed through a school and rural areas as well as a shopping mall and adjacent apartments . Police Chief Richard Ottman initially put the number of dead at 19 , but his clerk , Kitty Whitworth , later said the death toll was lowered to 17 after police confirmed the count of bodies . She said police had no firm reports of people missing . No children in the school were killed , but about 30 youngsters were in a kindergarten class at the building , and five were reported injured . Most of the dead were in apartments , stores or cars . Mayor Steve Hettinger estimated the number of homeless at 1,000 and said officials were preparing a request for federal disaster assistance . A worker at a building owned by the Madison County Jaycees said 42 people were staying there early today , and described the mood of the survivors as `` shock , mostly , and disbelief . '' `` They 're thankful to be alive and they 're thankful their families are alive , '' he said , adding that the shelter had received calls from around the country from worried relatives . The tornado was Alabama 's deadliest since a 1975 twister killed 22 people in Birmingham , said Danny Cooper , state emergency management director in Montgomery . Along a highway near a destroyed apartment complex , cars were flipped and smashed into telephone poles and crushed by trees . The roadway was strewn with used bandages and medical gloves left by emergency workers treating the injured . Humana Hospital administrator David Miller said doctors had difficulty reaching the hospital because of blocked roads . Those in the tornado 's path spoke with awe of its fury . `` It came in with a huge roar , an enormous amount of water , and it just started shaking and tearing at everything it could get hold of , '' said real estate broker Ike Carroll , who was in his car . Heavy overhead power lines `` started snapping just like a circus performer would snap his whip , '' Carroll said . `` All of these heavy arcing , flashing lines that were just popping and snapping over the top of us . ... It was as if you were looking into an arc-welder , they were so bright . '' Kenneth Lenhard had undergone an operation at the Crestwood Hospital on Wednesday and returned to his room about an hour before a window in the next room blew out as the tornado passed . `` There was n't anything I could do , so I covered my head , '' Lenhard said . `` I thought , ` What the heck , I 'm already half dead . ' '' The downtown Jones Valley Elementary School , the Waterford Square and adjacent Queensbury apartment complexes were reduced to rubble . Kindergarteners were the only pupils left at the school by the time the twister hit . The city is home to NASA 's Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army 's Redstone Arsenal , but no serious damage was reported from the space agency or weapons testing center . At least two other tornadoes were reported in Alabama , injuring at least three people in addition to the Huntsville total . Near Palmetto , Ga. , resident Jeff Bryant said his home at the Sweetbriar Mobile Home Park near Interstate 85 began to vibrate when the twister approached . `` Then we heard a large , loud , swirling and humming noise , '' he recalled . `` It did n't sound like a train like everybody says it does . I lived near a train track . It did not sound like a train . It sounded more like a jet aircraft at very close range . '' Thomas Farr was driving on Interstate 85 when the tornado hit . `` It was picking up cars and tossing them like toys off the interstate , '' he said . `` I saw one 18-wheeler flip over . The car in front of us was flipped about 100 yards , and the guy was thrown out of his passenger window and landed 50 feet from his car .
extractive_keyphrases: tornadoes severe thunderstorms tornado watch huntsville disaster victims property damage destruction rescue
abstractive_keyphrases: federal disaster assistance