Powerful Southern Storm Leaves 2 Dead

A storm system packing hurricane-force winds lashed parts of the South on Friday, knocking out power to thousands of people and filling rivers with rain. At least two people were killed, authorities said.

Soldiers from Ft. Hood, Texas, used a helicopter to pluck three children and a driver from the roof of a school bus swept into a rain-swollen creek near China Spring, 80 miles southwest of Dallas.

One by one, the students and driver were strapped into a harness and lifted to safety in the arms of an Army medic. The driver had called for help on a cellular telephone.

“The bus driver did a super job of keeping the kids calm,” said Valley Mills Supt. Arvell Rotan. “He was like a mother hen, cuddling them.”

One of the children became caught in some tree limbs but was freed moments later.

Elsewhere in Texas, firefighters used Hovercraft to rescue eight people stranded on a flooded bridge 25 miles southwest of Dallas. Three members of the group were firefighters who had attempted a rescue in a boat.

Rain totals for the last two days have approached a half-foot in some locations around the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

As rain drenched parts of Arkansas and Texas, wind gusts of nearly 100 mph were reported in Birmingham, Ala., where authorities said a woman was killed when a tree fell on a vehicle.

Alabama Power Co. spokeswoman Sandi George said 270,000 homes and businesses were without electricity.

In Mississippi, a woman was killed after she stepped out of her truck and it was blown into her, a Holmes County sheriff’s dispatcher said.

The storms moved into Georgia in the evening, downing trees and power lines. More than 60,000 homes were without electricity.