A fallen tree rests atop a crushed pickup truck after an early morning tornado moved through Caulfield, Mo., Thursday, March 1, 2007.[AP]

House Speaker Seth Hammett, at the statehouse in Montgomery, announced that five people had died at Miller's Ferry in west Alabama, where another apparent tornado tore into mobile homes.

Martha Rodriquez, a 15-year-old sophomore, said she had left the school about five minutes before the storm hit. When she returned, a hall at the school had collapsed, she said.

"The stadium was destroyed and there were cars tipped over in the parking lot and trees were ripped out. There were trees and wood everywhere. It was just horrible," she said.

More than 40 people were brought in to an Enterprise hospital as a violent storm front crossed the state. The same system was blamed for a tornado that killed a 7-year-old girl in Missouri.

Several school systems across Alabama closed or dismissed students early Thursday as the storm front approached from the west, extending the length of the state.

"The clouds were so dark that all the lights out here came on," said Walter Thornton, who works at Enterprise Municipal Airport.