In terms of violent tornadoes, the event ranks third with 15 EF4/5 storms, behind the 1974 Super Outbreak and 1965 Palm Sunday outbreak. A large outbreak was possible for April 25–27 as the SPC issued a moderate risk of severe weather for three consecutive days, centered over Arkansas through Tennessee. By the late-afternoon hours of April 25, several tornadoes had been reported across a few states, including two which caused significant damage in Oklahoma and Texas. At 3:25 pm CST (2025 UTC), the SPC issued a PDS tornado watch for much of Arkansas and parts of Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. Tornadoes were scattered that day until early evening, when an intense tornadic cell tracked near the Little Rock metropolitan area and a tornado emergency was declared for Vilonia, Arkansas. A wide EF2 tornado then caused extensive damage in Vilonia. At least four people are known to have died in the town with many more injured. On April 27, a large tornado struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama, killing 44 people. The Tuscaloosa mayor called the damage "catastrophic." The same tornado hit the northern suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, shortly thereafter, killing 20 more people. Television reporters in Birmingham, filming the tornado, reported that even from miles away, the funnel was so wide that they could not zoom their cameras out far enough to get the entire funnel into the frame at once. Over 200 tornadoes were reported during the SPC's reporting day of 1200Z April 27 (7:00 am CDT) to 1200Z April 28 (7:00 am CDT). 324 tornadic deaths were confirmed as a result of the outbreak, with as many as 238 in Alabama alone. The overall death toll also includes 32 deaths in Tennessee, 31 in Mississippi, 14 in Georgia, 5 in Arkansas, and 4 in Virginia, according to state officials. On April 27, President Barack Obama approved Governor Robert Bentley's request for emergency federal assistance including search and rescue support. On April 28, 2011, the National Weather Service sent out people to survey the damage; however, with the large number of tornadoes across Alabama, the reports were not finalized for months. By April 30, the death toll from the event (including death tolls from flooding and other severe weather) stood at more than 340 people across six states. On a lesser note, an F0 tornado (the Fujita scale was still used in Canada) downed trees and ripped siding off store buildings in Fergus, Ontario on April 27.