Eleven-month-old Kyson Stowell is held by his great-grandmother, Mildred Cox, at a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, yesterday. The baby was found in a field, about 100 yards away from his house, after a twister went through sections of the state. His mother, Kerri Stowell, was killed. - AP Photos

CASTALIAN SPRINGS Tennessee (AP):

Rescuers scouring a muddy field littered with debris after a wave of violent storms that killed at least 57 people were stunned to find a baby so still they initially mistook him for 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 (91.4 metres) away from where his family's house had been, possibly lifted by the storm's fierce winds, according to witnesses at the scene yesterday. 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 took so many lives 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.

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.

Tally

Lynn Klepzig (left), and Magan Klepzig, salvage items from Buddy Russell's house in Oxford, Mississippi on Wednesday. A major storm Tuesday night severely damaged and destroyed many buildings in the Oxford area. At least 55 people were killed and hundreds injured Tuesday and Wednesday by dozens of tornadoes that plowed across Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. It was the nation's deadliest barrage of twisters in almost 23 years.

Hundreds of homes were demolished across the region and officials were only beginning to tally how much the tornadoes would cost.

President George W. Bush, who said he called the governors of the affected states to offer support, plans to come to Tennessee on Friday. "Prayers can help and so can the government," Bush said.

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

The three Blackhawk 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.

The twisters killed 32 people in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and five in Alabama, emergency officials said. It was one of the 15 worst tornado death tolls since 1950, and the nation's deadliest barrage of tornadoes since 76 people were killed in Pennsylvania and Ohio on May 31, 1985.

Cars and tattered rubble of the Union University dorms stack up following a tornado that ripped through the university campus in Jackson, Tennessee.