TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (Reuters) – Tornadoes and violent storms tore through seven Southern states, killing at least 306 people and causing billions of dollars of damage in one of the deadliest swarm of twisters in U.S. history.

President Barack Obama described the loss of life as "heartbreaking" and called the damage to homes and businesses "nothing short of catastrophic." He promised strong federal support for rebuilding and plans to view the damage on Friday.

Over several days this week, the powerful tornadoes -- more than 160 reported in total -- combined with storms to cut a swath of destruction heading west to east. It was the worst U.S. natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed up to 1,800 people.

In some areas, whole neighborhoods were flattened, cars flipped over and trees and power lines felled, leaving tangled wreckage.

While rescue officials searched for survivors, some who sheltered in bathtubs, closets and basements told of miraculous escapes. "I made it. I got in a closet, put a pillow over my face and held on for dear life because it started sucking me up," said Angela Smith of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, one of the worst-hit cities.

In Birmingham, Alabama, which was also hard hit, Police Chief A.C. Roper said rescue workers sifted through rubble "hand to hand" on Thursday to pull people from destroyed homes.

"We even rescued two babies, one that was trapped in a crib when the house fell down on top of the baby," Roper said in an interview on PBS NewsHour.

Tornadoes are a regular feature of life in the U.S. South and Midwest, but they are rarely so devastating.

Wednesday was the deadliest day of tornadoes in the United States since 310 people lost their lives on April 3, 1974.

Given the apparent destruction, insurance experts were wary of estimating damage costs, but believed they would run into the billions of dollars, with the worst impact concentrated in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.

"In terms of the ground-up damage and quite possibly the insured damage, this event will be of historic proportions," Jose Miranda, an executive with the catastrophe risk modeling firm EQECAT, told Reuters.

'ONE OF THRE WORST'

"I think this is going to rank up as one of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history," said Federal Emergency Management Agency director Craig Fugate.

Fugate spoke in an interview with CNN from Alabama, where his agency said the tornadoes killed at least 204 people. There were still unconfirmed reports late on Thursday of "entire towns flattened" in northern parts of the state, Fugate said.

"We're still trying to get people through rescues and locate the missing," he said.

In preliminary estimates, other states' officials reported 33 killed in Mississippi, 34 in Tennessee, 11 in Arkansas, 14 in Georgia, eight in Virginia and two in Louisiana.

The mile-wide monster twister that tore on Wednesday through Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, may have been the biggest ever to hit the state, AccuWeather.com meteorologist Josh Nagelberg said.

Obama said he would visit Alabama on Friday to see the damage and meet the governor. He declared a state of emergency for Alabama and ordered federal aid.

"I want every American who has been affected by this disaster to know that the federal government will do everything we can to help you recover, and we will stand with you as you rebuild," Obama said at the White House.

Miranda said estimated costs would be "in the same ballpark" as an Oklahoma City tornado outbreak in 1999 that caused $1.58 billion of damage and a 2003 tornado outbreak in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma that caused $4.5 billion of damage.

The Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama was expected to be shut for days, possibly weeks, as workers repaired damaged transmission lines.

But the backup systems worked as intended to prevent a partial meltdown like the nuclear disaster in Japan.

The rampaging tornadoes and violent storms destroyed 200 chicken houses that held up to 4 million chickens in Alabama, the No. 3 U.S. chicken producer.

They also battered a local coal mine.

Up to 1 million people in Alabama were left without power.

Daimler said it had shut down its Mercedes-Benz vehicle assembly plant in Tuscaloosa until Monday due to the tornadoes, but the plant itself sustained only minor damage.

'SOUNDED LIKE CHAIN-SAW'

Some of the worst devastation occurred in Tuscaloosa, a town of about 95,000 in the west-central part of Alabama, where at least 37 people were killed, including some students.

"It sounded like a chain-saw. You could hear the debris hitting things. All I have left is a few clothes and tools that were too heavy for the storm to pick up. It doesn't seem real," said student Steve Niven, 24.

"I can buy new things but you cannot replace the people. I feel sorry for those who lost loved ones," Niven told Reuters.

The campus of the University of Alabama, home of the famous Crimson Tide football team, was not badly damaged, but some students were killed off campus, Bentley said.

Shops, shopping malls, drug stores, gas stations and dry cleaners were all flattened in one section of Tuscaloosa.

Alabama's governor declared a state of emergency and deployed 2,000 National Guard members. Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia also declared states of emergency.

Among the Alabama counties affected was Jefferson, which is struggling to avert what would be the largest bankruptcy in municipal history over a $3.2 billion bond debt.

The county suffered "widespread damage," a local emergency spokesman said, and at least 17 people were killed.

(Additional reporting by Peggy Gargis in Birmingham and Leigh Coleman in Biloxi, Colleen Jenkins in St. Petersburg, Tim Ghianni in Nashville, Tom Brown in Miami, Will Dunham in Washington; Writing by Matthew Bigg and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Peter Cooney)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The California couple charged with abducting 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and holding her captive for 18 years pleaded guilty on Thursday to kidnapping and sexual assault charges that carry life prison sentences.

Phillip Garrido, 59, who authorities say fathered two daughters by Dugard during her captivity, and his co-defendant wife, Nancy, 55, are scheduled to be formally sentenced on June 2, the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office said.

The case made international headlines in 2009 when Dugard, forced to live nearly two decades in squalid tents and sheds in the backyard of the Garridos' San Francisco Bay-area home, was rescued at age 29 with her daughters, then 11 and 15.

Garrido, a previously convicted rapist, had aroused police suspicions while proselytizing at a college campus.

Dugard, who turns 31 next week, issued a brief statement through a representative saying she was "relieved that Phillip and Nancy Garrido have finally acknowledged their guilt and confessed to their crimes against me and my family."

Her family received a $20 million settlement in 2009 through a state victim's compensation fund.

The California inspector general found that state officials failed to properly supervise Garrido after his release from a 10-year prison term for a 1976 rape, overlooking a series of parole violations that should have led to his earlier capture.

District Attorney Vern Pierson credited Dugard with enabling prosecutors to bring the Garridos to justice.

"Jaycee's courage and willingness to confront her abductors in court directly led to the defendants' plea and life sentences," he said in a statement.

Under the plea deal, Phillip Garrido faces a sentence of 431 years to life, and his spouse 36 years to life, minus time already served. Both waived their rights to appeal

Nancy Garrido would be eligible for parole after 36 years if she lives that long. "The odds are she probably won't get out, but she has a chance," lawyer Steve Tapson told Reuters.

Dugard was snatched from a street near her South Lake Tahoe home on June 10, 1991, as she walked to catch a school bus.

She was forced to live in a makeshift compound at the Garridos' home near Antioch, California, for 18 years, bearing two daughters fathered by Garrido when she was a teenager.

Their discovery came after Phillip Garrido brought Dugard and the girls with him to a meeting with a parole officer, who determined their identity.

Dugard, who has kept a low public profile since her rescue, reached a deal with publisher Simon and Schuster last year to recount her ordeal in a book.

Tapson said last month the Garridos had given police a full confession in hopes of securing a relatively lenient sentence for Nancy Garrido, who said she was under her husband's sway and not involved in any the sexual abuse of Dugard.

But she ended up pleaded guilty to one count of rape -- for aiding and abetting her husband, Tapson said -- as well as one count of kidnapping. Phillip Garrido pleaded guilty to kidnapping as well as to 13 sexual assault counts alleged against him in the couple's indictment.

He was expected to plead guilty three weeks ago under an earlier agreement with prosecutors, but an unspecified legal hitch scuttled the deal and he pleaded not guilty instead.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)

SEATTLE (Reuters) – The North American branch of the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic order that runs schools around the world, has filed for bankruptcy protection amid mounting sexual abuse claims against U.S. and Canadian members.

Although the bankruptcy filing was made in New York, where the brothers' North American chapter is headquartered, the bulk of the abuse claims come from the Seattle area, said Michael Patterson, a lawyer for the Catholic Archdiocese in Seattle.

"It's a sad day. We're very disappointed that it reached this level," Patterson told Reuters on Thursday night.

"We had hoped that we could have partnered with the Christian Brothers to settle claims. What this means is that victims now have to deal with this out of bankruptcy court."

He said he did not know the extent of the claims.

But lawyers for the plaintiffs in lawsuits against the Christian Brothers said its members, who are not ordained as priests, sexually abused scores of children in the United States and Canada.

Seattle attorney Michael Pfau said on Thursday he has settled more than 50 abuse cases for a total of $25.6 million, paid out to victims in the last five years by the order and the Seattle Archdiocese.

About 35 of those cases originated with the now-defunct Briscoe Memorial School, an orphanage and boarding school jointly run by the archdiocese and Christian Brothers in Kent, Washington.

"There were rapes, molestations and beatings. The brothers carried long leather straps. It was a very abusive place," Pfau told Reuters.

Most lawsuits still pending involve allegations of sexual abuse at schools and orphanages the Brothers owned and operated in Washington state and Canada, he said, adding that the order filed for bankruptcy in a bid to shield its assets in Rome.

"They made money taking over the care of children but put many of their members who were known abusers in charge of them," Pfau said. "Then they tried to cover it up. This bankruptcy is just another effort for them to avoid responsibility."

A spokesman for the order reached by telephone on Thursday declined to comment.

The bankruptcy filing comes weeks after the Pacific Northwest branch of another Catholic order, the Jesuits, agreed to pay $166 million to settle more than 500 child sexual abuse claims against priests, nuns and other non-clergy. Those claims led the Jesuits to file for Chapter 11 two years ago.

Last year, the Congregation of Christian Brothers came under fire over a report by the government of Ireland finding widespread sexual abuse of children in schools and other institutions run by the order in that country.

(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)