• Fans from 'Bama, LSU party down for BCS title

    Kerry Maloney / AP

    Alabama student Sara Berthaume taunts LSU students Joel Boudreaux, left, and Leif Dubois in the French Quarter before the BCS title football game in New Orleans, Jan. 9, 2012.

    Who are you picking? (vote below)

    AP reports: NEW ORLEANS - LSU and Alabama fans pitched tents, flew banners and cooked up Deep South staples like gumbo and barbecue in what had turned into a massive party ahead of Monday night's BCS national championship game.

    Alabama fans started lining up at the stadium shortly after dawn to pick up tickets for the night's game, featuring the nation's two top-ranked college teams in a rematch of a November game won by LSU.

     

    Kerry Maloney / AP

    LSU alumni, from left, Troy Aucion and Matt Sotile throw beads to fans in the French Quarter before the BCS title football game in New Orleans, Jan. 9, 2012.

    Gerald Herbert / AP

    Fans cheer before the BCS National Championship college football game between LSU and Alabama, Jan. 9, 2012, in New Orleans.

  • Streeter Lecka / Getty Images

    Drew Alleman (center) of the LSU Tigers celebrates after kicking the game-winning field goal in overtime to defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide 9-6 during their game at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Nov. 5, 2011 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

    LSU celebrates overtime victory against Alabama

    AP reports

    TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - No. 1 LSU gained the inside track to the BCS title game, beating No. 2 Alabama 9-6 on Drew Alleman's 25-yard field goal in overtime after a fierce defensive struggle in which neither team reached the end zone Saturday night.

    The Crimson Tide missed four field goals, including Cade Foster's 52-yard attempt after Alabama got the ball first in the extra period. LSU appeared to win the game on Michael Ford's run around left end after taking a pitch, but he stepped out of bounds at the 7.

    After two plays gained nothing, LSU sent in Alleman to attempt his third field goal of the game on third down. Alabama tried to freeze him by calling timeout, but he calmly knocked it through to set off a wild celebration by the visiting team.

    The crowd of more than 100,000 at Bryant-Denny Stadium — most of them dressed in crimson — sat in stunned silence as LSU celebrated its victory. Read more…

  • Kiichiro Sato / AP

    Beachgoers run for shelter as the rain starts pouring down, Sept. 3, in Dauphin Island, Ala. As Tropical Storm Lee continues advancing toward the Louisiana coast, the storm dumps sporadic heavy rain along the coasts.

    Tropical Storm Lee trudges toward Gulf Coast

    According to msnbc.com staff and news service reports:

    The storm was expected to make landfall on the central Louisiana coast late Saturday and turn east toward New Orleans, where it would provide the biggest test of rebuilt levees since Hurricane Gustav struck on Labor Day 2008.

    Still, residents didn't expect the tropical storm to live up to the legacy of some of the killer hurricanes that have hit the city.

    "It's a lot of rain. It's nothing, nothing (compared) to Katrina," said Malcolm James, 59, a federal investigator in New Orleans who lost his home after levees broke during Katrina in August 2005 and had to be airlifted by helicopter.

    "This is mild," he said. "Things could be worse."

    Read the full story here.

  • Alabama family, victims of 1974 tornado, survives direct hit of 2011 EF 5 tornado

    By Rich Shulman

    What are the odds that a family would suffer two direct hits from a tornado?

    Previous PhotoBlog tornado posts.

    Gary Cosby Jr / AP

    Jennifer Pitts Adair kneels in the spot where she survived a direct hit from the April 27th EF5 tornado, June 20, 2011. Her Camden Ct. home in Limestone County near Athens, Ala., was destroyed to the foundation yet the twister left her lying in floor of what was once her closet injuring only her shoulder. Adair credits her survival to lessons learned from the 1974 tornado that claimed three relatives years before she was even born.


    Gary Cosby Jr / AP

    The Pitts family has endured great loss in the Tanner community having lost family members and homes in the April 3, 1974 tornado and homes in the April 27th, 2011 tornado. Jennifer Pitts Adair sits with her dad Wayne Pitts and mom Jo Ann Pitts in their apartment in Athens, Ala., June 24. Jennifer's home was destroyed in Camden Court near Athens and the Pitts' home was destroyed on Ingram Rd. in Tanner during the April 27th EF 5 tornado.

    Gary Cosby Jr. / AP

    Jo Ann Pitts stands with a box of treasured photos that survived the destruction of her home April 27 when a storm bearing an EF 5 tornado struck Ingram Rd. south of Athens, Alabama. The Pitts family lost three family members killed in the April 3, 1974 F5 tornado which also claimed two homes of family members on Ingram Rd. The Pitts family was struck again April 27, 2011 suffering the loss of a home on Ingram Rd. and another belonging to their daughter, Jennifer Pitts Adair, on Camden Court east of Athens when an EF 5 traveling the same path as the 1974 storm hit both areas.

    Gary Cosby Jr / AP

    The Pitts family has endured great loss in the Tanner community having lost family members and homes in the April 3, 1974 tornado and homes in the April 27, 2011 tornado. Jennifer Pitts Adair's hand written journal shows an entry from April 29th, 2011. She has been journaling and keeping some of it on Facebook since the tornado struck destroying her home in Camden Court near Athens, Ala., and her parents home on Ingram Rd. in the Tanner community.

  • Residents and volunteers begin tornado clean-up in Carter's Gin, Ala.

    Eric Schultz / AP

    John VanTiem, a chaplain with Hope Force, prays with Josephine Neal, whose brother Jerry Coffin's house was destroyed by the tornado in the Carter's Gin community in Huntsville, Ala. on May 2.

    Eric Schultz / AP

    A car sits amid tornado damage on Old Eli Road in the Carter's Gin in Huntsville, Ala. on May 2.

    Eric Schultz / AP

    An American flag flies in the breeze as volunteers from IKON/Ricoh help clean up a destroyed home in the Carter's Gin community on May 2 in Huntsville, Ala.

     See more images of the storms and their aftermath in our slideshow.

  • Tom Pennington / Getty Images

    Jacorn Golston plays with a toy in the sleeping area of a Red Cross Shelter on May 2 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Alabama, the hardest-hit of six states, is reported to have been battered with at least an EF-4 rated tornado with the death toll across the South rising to over 300 as a result of the storms.)

    Eye clinics, federal aid all part of Alabama relief

    By Rich Shulman

    Life after the tornado goes on in a Red Cross Shelter in Tuscaloosa. Full story.

  • GeoEye via Reuters

    A combination of images from GeoEye's IKONOS high-resolution satellite, made available to Reuters on April 29, 2011, shows an overview of the path of destruction after a massive tornado touched down in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on April 28, 2011 (L) and an image taken April 4, 2006. President Barack Obama promised federal aid on Friday to the tornado-ravaged U.S. South, where deadly twisters have killed at least 339 people and caused billions of dollars in damage. Flying into Tuscaloosa, where a tornado touched down on April 27, 2011, Obama and his family saw a wide brown scar of devastation several miles long and hundreds of yards wide.

    The path of destruction as seen from space

    Full story here: Storms, tornados ravage South

    Slideshow here: Severe storms rip across U.S.

  • Aerial photos show path of tornado through Tuscaloosa, Alabama

    Dusty Compton / AP

    This aerial photo shows the path of the tornado in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Thursday, April 28, 2011. A powerful and deadly tornado cut through Alabama Wednesday evening. President Barack Obama said he would visit Alabama Friday to view damage and meet with the governor and families devastated by the storms. Obama has already expressed condolences by phone to Gov. Robert Bentley and approved his request for emergency federal assistance.

    Marvin Gentry / Reuters

    An aerial view shows extensive damage to houses in the path of tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, April 28, 2011.

    Marvin Gentry / Reuters

    An aerial view shows extensive damage to homes and businesses in the path of tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, April 28, 2011. Tornadoes and violent storms ripped through seven southern U.S. states, killing at least 259 people in the country's deadliest series of twisters in nearly four decades.

     

  • Huge tornadoes slash into Ala. cities

    Don Kausler, Jr. / AP

    A funnel cloud approaches Tuscaloosa, Ala. where reported wide spread damage has occurred from the storm in this photo taken looking north from Taylorsville, Ala. Wednesday April 27, 2011.

    Butch Dill / AP

    Residents survey the destruction after a tornado hit Pratt City, Ala. just north of downtown Birmingham, Ala. on Wednesday, April 27, 2011.

    Caroline Summers / AP

    Residents attempt to retrieve their belongings after a tornado destroyed their apartments Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Tuscaloosa, Ala.

    Butch Dill / AP

    Residents survey the destruction after a tornado hit Pratt City, Ala. just north of downtown Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday, April 27, 2011.

    Get the latest updates from here and see the slideshow.

    Watch as a tornado crosses through Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as recorded by Chris England of the Crimson Tide Production Team for the University of Alabama Athletics Department.

     

  • Eighteen-wheeler plunges off bridge into Alabama creek

    Matt Mckean / The TimesDaily via AP

    Alabama state and local emergency personel and cleanup crews work to raise a semi-tractor and trailer that plunged off the Bluewater Creek bridge into the creek along US 72 early Thursday morning April 21, near Elgin, Alabama. The driver was treated and rleased from a local hospital.

    Matt Mckean / The TimesDaily via AP

    Emergency personnel and cleanup crews work to raise the semi-tractor and trailer.

    An eighteen-wheeler falls from a rural Alabama bridge early Thursday morning after the driver attempts to avoid hitting a deer. Msnbc.com's Al Stirrett reports.

     

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