At least 25 people were killed as devastating tornadoes swept across the southern US state of Mississippi, tearing away roofs, destroying cars and flattening entire neighborhoods. The region prepared for heavier weather on Sunday.
The powerful weather system, accompanied by thunderstorms and driving rain, cut a path of more than 100 miles (60 kilometers) across the state late Friday, slamming several towns along the way.
Mississippi’s disaster response agency estimated the death toll at 25 and said dozens more were injured. Four people reported missing have been “found,” it added.
And in Alabama, a man died after getting stuck when a trailer overturned in the inclement weather, the Morgan County sheriff’s office said on Twitter.
In Rolling Fork, home to less than 2,000 people, an entire row of homes and buildings was demolished, leaving only scattered rubble. Cars were overturned, fences torn and trees uprooted.
About 4,800 customers were without power in Mississippi, and nearly 11,000 homes and businesses in neighboring Alabama were left in the dark, monitor poweroutage.us reported.
Mississippi, meanwhile, prepared for more turbulent weather on Sunday, including damaging winds and hail, with the state’s emergency management agency warning that “tornadoes cannot be ruled out.”
Patricia Perkins, who works in a hardware store in Rolling Fork, told AFP that “almost everything has been wiped out”.
On local TV, resident Shanta Howard described how community members had to help pull the dead from the wreckage.
“It’s much worse than I thought. All the businesses on Highway 61 are gone,” Ricky Cox, whose seed supply store was vandalized, told AFP, saying two friends died when their homes were hit.
“My town is gone,” Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker told CNN. “Devastation — when I look from left to right, that’s all I see.
“Many families are in pain. This community is in a situation we never expected.
“Houses that are demolished can be replaced, but we cannot replace life.”
Search and rescue operations were underway in Sharkey County, home to Rolling Fork — about 60 miles northwest of the state capital of Jackson — and adjacent counties.
There were also deaths in Humphreys, Carroll and Monroe counties, the emergency management agency said.
“The loss will be felt forever in these cities,” Governor Tate Reeves said on Twitter. “Please pray that God’s hand will be upon all who have lost family and friends.”
President Joe Biden called the images from Mississippi “heartbreaking” and vowed to make federal resources available to the state.
“We will do everything we can to help. We will be there as long as it takes,” he said in a statement.
– ‘Crying constantly’ for help –
Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby told AFP he arrived in Rolling Fork right after the storm hit, in pouring rain and with “lightning still everywhere”.
“When I got there it was just a constant cry of voices screaming for help from people who were trapped,” he said, adding that he helped residents free a few people from their destroyed homes.
The National Weather Service issued a rare tornado emergency at 9 p.m. Friday for Rolling Fork and surrounding areas, warning people to seek shelter from life-threatening conditions and predicting golf ball-sized hail.
The NWS warned residents that as cleanup operations continue, “dangers remain even after the storms have progressed.”
Malary White, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, told CBS News affiliate WJTV that the “most important priority right now, especially for the local first responders, is the safety of life and being accountable to the people and making sure they Being safe.”
Tornadoes, a weather phenomenon notoriously difficult to predict, are relatively common in the United States, especially in the central and southern parts of the country.
In January, a series of damaging twisters, all on the same day, killed several people in Alabama and Georgia.
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