Video of the violent storm is coming from every source, including news videographers and citizens with camera phones, onto the Web.
A state of emergency has been declared in Alabama after what officials are calling the deadliest storms in nearly 40 years. But unlike the 1974 storm that swept through the south, this one unfolded before the cameras of hundreds, and its history is being recorded in real time online.
al.com, our Alabama affiliate based in the thick of things, is compiling videos from around the Web, including the video captured above by Christopher England of the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide production team. The University is based in Tuscaloosa, which was hit hard by a tornado that grazed the school in its path.
Videographers from The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and Press-Register have caught the storm - and its aftermath - on camera.
Kristen Heptinstall is also collecting coverage around the Web via Storify.
While the brunt of the damage hit the state of Alabama, much of the South suffered damage from dozens of tornadoes caused by the storm. The Associated Press reports:
Alabama's state emergency management agency said it had confirmed 131 deaths, while there were 32 in Mississippi, 29 in Tennessee, 13 in Georgia, eight in Virginia and one in Kentucky.
The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports into Wednesday night.
The storms came on the heels of another system that killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi earlier this week. Less than two weeks earlier, a smaller batch of twisters raced through Alabama, touching off warning sirens, damaging businesses and downing power lines in Tuscaloosa, but there were no deaths there then.
President Barack Obama, who declared a state of emergency in Alabama early this morning, released a statement of sympathy soon after, saying, in part, "Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster. "
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley similarly declared a state of emergency and mobilized about 2,000 Alabama National Guardsmen, according to The Birmingham News. They report that he said an estimated 500,000 to 1 million people are without power in Alabama.
"We were prepared. It's just you can not prepare against an F5 tornado," Bentley said.
Information from The Associated Press and The Birmingham News was used in this post. Follow real-time updates from al.com »