Communities devastated by twisters mourn, try to rebuild

CASTALIAN SPRINGS, Tenn. -- The muddy field was littered with debris after a wave of violent storms: Living room couches, strollers, children's toys. So when two rescuers came upon a baby, they thought he was a doll.

Then he moved.

"We grabbed hold of his neck [to take a pulse] and he took a breath of air and started crying," said David Harmon, a firefighter from a nearby county who was combing the field for tornado victims.

The boy was found at least 100 yards away from where his family's house had been, possibly lifted by the storm's fierce winds, according to witnesses at the scene Thursday. There was no trace of exactly where the house stood. His mother, who did not survive, was found in the same field.

In a region devastated by tornadoes that killed at least 57 people as they swept through five states, the infant was a sign of hope. The 11-month old boy, named Kyson, was surrounded by flattened homes, bricks from a blown-apart post office and snapped trees, a devastating scene similar to so many communities across the South.

Brandon Scott, 7, walked through storm wreckage of his father's boat factory Thursday in Clinton, Ark. The child hid under a desk with his father when a tornado hit the building Tuesday. (Danny Johnston ~ Associated Press)

The baby's mother, 24-year-old Kerri Stowell, was one of six people killed in the small community, said Sumner County Sheriff Bob Barker.

Federal and state emergency teams poured into the hardest-hit areas, along with utility workers and insurance claims representatives. Hundreds of homes were demolished across the region and officials were only beginning to tally how much the tornadoes would cost.

President Bush, who said he called the governors of the affected states to offer support, plans to visit Tennessee today. "Prayers can help and so can the government," Bush said.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff joined Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen on Thursday for a helicopter tour of storm damage in the Jackson area.

The helicopters circled Union University, where 26 students had to be rescued after being trapped in the rubble of dormitories that were shredded around them by a tornado. Several students were injured, but remarkably no one was killed. Debris from the dorms and overturned cars remained strewn across the campus. The helicopters followed the path of the storm, tracing the wreckage of trees, homes and vehicles.

"I find it astonishing. It is truly a miracle that lives were not lost there," Bredesen said.

Charity efforts were beginning for those who lost their homes. A classroom inside the Pleasant Field Full Gospel Church building in Scottsville, Ky., was filled with bags of clothes and a nearby kitchen was stuffed with donated food, ready for residents displaced by the storm.