A US Military helicopter evacuates a patient from Enterprise High School after a tornado did severe damage to the school, March 1, 2007 in Enterprise, Ala. [AP]

Eight students were killed when a tornado struck Enterprise High School, blowing out the walls and collapsing part of the roof, Mayor Kenneth Boswell said Friday.

"They were in a one particular wing that took a direct hit," Boswell said of the victims. Boswell appeared drained as his staff and National Guard crews tried to assess the damage at dawn and search the torn-up neighborhoods for more victims.

"You take it methodically," Boswell said. "You prioritize, and you move on."

As the massive storm system swept into Georgia, another tornado apparently touched down near the Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, 117 miles south of Atlanta, killing at least two people and injuring an undetermined number of others, said Buzz Weiss of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. At least 42 patients were evacuate to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Putney spokeswoman Jackie Ryan said.

Six more people were killed in the town of Newton, Ga., and several homes were destroyed, Fire Chief Andy Belinc said early Friday.

The burst of tornadoes was part of a larger line of thunderstorms and snowstorms that stretched from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast. Authorities blamed a tornado for the death of a 7-year-old girl in Missouri, 10 people in Alabama, nine in Georgia, and twisters also damaged homes in Kansas.

Inside Enterprise High School, officials had been watching the storm Thursday as it swept through southern Missouri, killing a 7-year-old girl there, and headed into Alabama. The students were preparing to leave when the sirens started up and the lights went out.

Teacher Grannison Wagstaff was with them.

"I said 'Here it comes. Hit the deck," he told CBS's "The Early Show" Friday. "I turned around and I could actually see the tornado coming toward me."

As the students scrambled for shelter, a section of roof and a wall near 17-year-old senior Erin Garcia collapsed on her classmates.

"I was just sitting there praying the whole time," Erin said. "It sounded like a bunch of people trying to beat the wall down. People didn't know where to go. They were trying to lead us out of the building.

"I kept seeing people with blood on their faces."

Outside, debris from the school was strewn around the neighborhood, where cars were flipped or tossed atop each other.

At least one other person was killed in Enterprise, a city of about 23,000 some 75 miles south of Montgomery. Another died across the state in rural Millers Ferry, where trailer homes were flipped and trees toppled, officials said.

In Sumter County, home of former President Jimmy Carter, the main hospital received some storm damage and there were two fatalities and an undetermined number of injuries, Weiss said. Officials weren't sure whether the injured and the dead were inside the hospital when it struck, he said.

The front windows of the hospital were blown out and the wind had picked up cars in the parking lot and tossed them around, hurling one into a tree.

Around the town, the storm uprooted trees and knocked down power lines. Several homes and businesses were destroyed in downtown Americus. Among the worst hit was Cheek Memorial Church. It's wooden steeple was knocked off the roof and smashed in front of the church.

Marcia Wilson, who lives across the street from the Church, said she heard a huge roar as the storm went through.

"It felt like the whole house was fixing to fall in," she said. "We could just hear it coming over us. All I could do was pray that God take care of us and he did. We're all right."

Farther north, a tornado killed a man in a mobile home in Taylor County, county Emergency Management Agency Director Gary Lowe said. Weiss said between 40 and 60 homes were damaged in Clay County, south of Muscogee along the Chattahoochee River on the Alabama line.

The storm knocked out power to 15,000 homes in Columbus and another 3,200 across the Chattahoochee in Phenix City, Ala., damaged some buildings and toppled trees into streets.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue was flying by helicopter Friday morning to Americus and Baker County to survey the damage there, Perdue spokesman Dan McLagan said.