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Rescuers scrambled Saturday to search for survivors and help hundreds of people left homeless after a tornado tore through a devastating Mississippi road, killing at least 25 people, injuring dozens, destroying entire blocks and destroying homes in at least one Mississippi Delta town when carved. road damage for more than an hour. One person died in Alabama.
A tornado devastated the town of Rolling Fork in Mississippi, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars on their sides and toppling water towers.
Residents hunkered down in bathtubs and broke into a John Deere store that had been converted into a triage center for the wounded.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency announced late Saturday afternoon in a tweet that the death toll had risen to 25 from 23. Four people previously reported missing have been found, but dozens are also injured.
Other parts of the Deep South were digging out of the damage from other suspected twisters. One person was also killed in Morgan County, Ala., the sheriff’s department said on Twitter.
“There’s nothing left,” said Wonder Bolden, holding his granddaughter, Journey, as he stood outside the remains of his mother’s now-leveled mobile home in Rolling Fork.
“There is only the wind running, passing – nothing.”
Throughout Saturday morning, he and others walked around in confusion and shock as they picked through debris and fallen trees with chainsaws, searching for survivors. Power lines are strung under a decades-old oak tree, its roots torn from the ground.
‘Heartache’ Devastation
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency and pledged to help rebuild as he looked to see the damage to areas dotted with cotton, corn and soybean farms and catfish farms.
US President Joe Biden also pledged federal aid, describing the damage as “heartbreaking.”
The damage in Rolling Fork was so widespread that some storm chasers — who follow the severe weather and often make livestreams showing the dramatic funnel clouds — called for search and rescue help. Others left the hunt to drive the wounded to the hospital.
But it didn’t help that a community hospital on the west side of the city was damaged, forcing patients to be moved.
Sheddrick Bell, his partner and two daughters crouched in the front closet of Rolling Fork for 15 minutes as the tornado barreled through. The daughters did not stop crying. He could hear his friend praying loudly beside him.
“I just thought, ‘If I can still open my eyes and move, I’m good,'” he said.
Rodney Porter, who lives south of Rolling Fork and is with the local fire department, said he doesn’t know how people survived when they were delivering water and fuel to their families there.
“It was like a bomb going off,” he said, describing houses stacked on top of houses. Crews even cut gas lines to the city to keep residents and first responders safe.
The warning issued by the US National Weather Service during the storm didn’t say a word: “To protect your life, TAKE COVER NOW!”
‘All the ingredients are there’
Preliminary information based on forecasts from storm reports and radar data indicated that the tornado was on the ground for more than an hour and traveled at least 175 miles, said Lance Perrilloux, a meteorologist with the weather service office in Jackson, Miss.
“It’s very, very rare,” he said, citing the long path to atmospheric instability. “All the ingredients are there.”
Perrilloux said preliminary findings are that the tornado started its damage southwest of Rolling Fork before continuing northeast toward the rural communities of Midnight and Silver City, then moving toward Tchula, Black Hawk and Winona.
The supercell that produced the deadly twister also appeared to produce tornadoes that caused damage in northwest and north-central Alabama, said Brian Squitieri, a severe storm forecaster with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
In northern Alabama’s Morgan County, a 67-year-old man who was trapped under a trailer that flipped over during a heavy overnight storm was rescued by first responders, but died later at the hospital, AL.com reported.
Even when the survey team was able to assess how many tornadoes were struck and their severity, the Storm Prediction Center warned of the potential for hail, wind and possibly some tornadoes in parts of Mississippi and Louisiana.
‘Almost complete destruction’
Cornel Knight told The Associated Press that he, his wife and three-year-old daughter were at a relative’s house in Rolling Fork when the tornado struck.
The sky was dark, but “you could see the direction of every blown transformer.”
He said the tornado hit another relative’s house in a large field from where he lived. A wall in the house collapsed and trapped several people inside.
Royce Steed, emergency manager in Humphreys County, where Silver City is located, compared the damage to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“It’s almost done with the damage,” he said after crews finished searching the building and switched to damage assessment. “This little old town is…more or less a map.”
In the city, the roof has been torn off the house of Noel Crook, where he lives with his wife.
“Yesterday was yesterday and there was nothing — nothing we could do,” Crook said. “Tomorrow isn’t here yet, you’re not in control, so here I am.”
‘Jesus, help them’
The tornado appeared so powerful on radar as it approached the town of Amory, about 40 kilometers southeast of Tupelo, that one Mississippi meteorologist paused to say a prayer after new radar information came in.
“Oh my gosh,” WTVA’s Matt Laubhan said live. “Lord Jesus, help them. Amen.”
Now the city is boiling water, and a curfew is in effect.
More than half a dozen shelters were opened in the country to accommodate the displaced.
“It’s a priceless feeling to see the gratitude on people’s faces knowing they’re getting a hot meal,” said William Trueblood, director of emergency disaster services for the Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi Division of the Salvation Army, when he went to the area to vote. stock up on the road.
He said he heard at least 19,000 homes were affected by the severe weather.
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