8 Die in Storms in Alabama and Missouri

ATLANTA, March 1 — A storm system that stretched nearly 1,000 miles from the Midwest to the Southeast on Thursday killed at least eight people in two states, including five who died when an apparent tornado caused the roof to collapse at a high school in Enterprise, Ala., state emergency management officials said.
Some students remained unaccounted for late Thursday and could be trapped inside the building, said Larry Walker, deputy director of the Emergency Management Agency in Coffee County, in southeastern Alabama.
Students at Enterprise High School had just been ordered to take cover in hallways when fierce winds bore down at 1 p.m., plunging them into darkness and pounding them with falling debris.
“The ceiling part fell on us and rocks hit me on the back,” said Ezekiel Jones, 17, a senior who was in the gym when the apparent tornado struck. “I was thinking of my mom, my girlfriend, my sister and my friends. Everybody was screaming.”