Tuscaloosa decimated by tornado

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (WALA) - Areas in Tuscaloosa usually bustling with people are littered with debris from Wednesday night’s tornado.

15th Street in Tuscaloosa is a busy and popular thoroughfare in this college town.

The street is lined with businesses and buildings, but now it's a giant stretch of destruction.

"It's just total devastation, very extensive," says Tuscaloosa resident Shannon Cook.

Power lines hover close the street, homes are destroyed, trucks are turned over and businesses were blown apart.

The windows were blown out of an appliance store, and the new merchandise inside is severely damaged.

"It just looks like every tree is gone, every house is gone. You just know there is lives lost and it’s hard to believe," Cook says.

Onlookers were steered away to safety while a helicopter hovered overhead and emergency crews worked on power lines.

The Mayor says Tuscaloosa's infrastructure has been decimated and the city's resources have been stretched thin. City officials had to call on other communities for help.

"It's really bad, it just looks like someone dropped a bomb," says one woman.

Emergency crews were working throughout the night restoring power and looking for survivors while onlookers wandered around.

A massive emergency clinic on 15th Street has been reduced to rubble. The maintenance supervisor says 15,000 square feet of the building has been leveled. The roof ripped right off.

The clinic’s supervisor said there used to be three 15-ton air conditioning units on top of the roof, but now he doesn't know where they are.

The people FOX10 News spoke to were grateful to be alive, but sad that some others were not as lucky.

At a nearby neighborhood in the Glendale Gardens community, homes were reduced to rubble.

A police officer from New Orleans got word of a 21-year-old woman who was trapped beneath the debris of her home. But when help arrived, the woman was dead.

FOX10 News has crews on the ground and we'll bring you the latest on fox10tv.com and on our evening newscasts.