Severe weather in the American southeast leads off today's show. As we put this program together, a search and rescue operation was underway in the U.S. state of Alabama.
On Monday night, a deadly storm tore through the town of Fultondale, a northern suburb of Birmingham. It killed at least one person and injured dozens of others. Fultondale's fire chief said 17 people there were taken to the emergency room for different injuries and some of those are critical. One witness told AL.com that it looked like a bomb had gone off in the town of 9,000 people causing serious damage to almost all of the homes there.
One county official said there wasn't much warning. The storm spawned a tornado described as large and extremely dangerous. It ripped up a hotel, tore off part of a church's roof, struck a high school, damaged or destroyed homes and businesses and scattered power lines and debris across the roads.
The mayor of Center Point, another Birmingham suburb, reported quite a bit of damage in his city of 16,000 people. And while he said that Tuesday would be a long day of assessing damage and covering up places where walls, roots or windows were missing.
He was grateful that there were no injuries in Center Point. Schools were closed in the region. Survivors said they were grateful to be alive and that the community was pulling together to help one another. The storm system prompted tornado watches and warnings in Alabama and Georgia as it made its way across the region. And as it turned north, it was expected to bring heavy snow to the Mid-Atlantic coast on Tuesday night.
1. lead off 開始；啟動；帶頭；
Who would like to lead off the debate?
誰願帶頭髮言開始辯論？
2. go off （爆炸裝置）爆炸；（槍）開火；
A few minutes later the bomb went off, destroying the vehicle.
炸彈幾分鐘後爆炸，炸毀了那輛車。
3. rip up 把…撕碎；
He had ripped up the carpet, leaving only the bare boards.
他用力扯去了地毯，只剩下裸露的地板。
4. tear off 撕掉；扯掉；
She tore off the remains of the paper lable.
她把標籤的殘留部分撕掉。
今天的節目先來關注美國東南部的惡劣天氣。在我們製作本期節目時，美國阿拉巴馬州正在進行搜救行動。
周一晚上，一場致命風暴席捲了位於伯明罕北郊的富爾頓代爾鎮。該風暴至少造成1人死亡，數十人受傷。富爾頓代爾鎮的消防隊長表示，17人因不同的傷勢被送往急診室，其中一些人傷勢嚴重。一位目擊者在接受阿拉巴馬州新聞網的採訪時表示，這個人口為9000人的小鎮看起來像發生了炸彈爆炸，該鎮幾乎所有房屋都遭到了嚴重破壞。
一名縣政府官員表示，沒有太多預警信息。據稱，這場風暴引發了巨大且極其危險的龍捲風。龍捲風摧毀了一家酒店，掀掉了一座教堂的部分屋頂，襲擊了一所高中，致房屋和商店受損或毀壞，並導致電線和瓦礫散落在道路上。
伯明罕郊區Center Point的市長報告稱，其所在城市有1.6萬人口，受到了相當嚴重的破壞。他說，周二將是一個漫長的一天，他要評估損失情況，並掩蓋牆壁、樹根或窗戶丟失的地方。
他很慶幸Center Point並沒有人員傷亡。該地區的學校已經關閉。倖存者表示，他們很感激自已還活著，社區正在齊心協力互相幫助。該風暴系統在穿越阿拉巴馬州和喬治亞州時，這兩個州發布了龍捲風監測和警報。隨著該風暴轉向北移，預計其周二晚上將給大西洋中部海岸帶來大雪。