Powerful tornadoes that ripped through Mississippi have killed at least 25 people, injured many more and obliterated dozens of buildings, leaving an especially devastating mark in one rural town where its mayor mourned: “My city is gone”.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said in a Twitter post that search and rescue teams from local and state agencies were being deployed to help victims worst affected by the freak weather. The agency later confirmed the death toll had risen to 26, including a man who was killed in neighbouring Alabama.
The National Weather Service confirmed that one tornado caused damage about 60 miles north-east of Jackson, Mississippi. The rural towns of Silver City and Rolling Fork reported destruction as the tornado swept north east at 70 mph without weakening, racing towards Alabama through towns including Winona and Amory into the night.
Mayor Eldridge Walker, of the town of Rolling Fork in the county seat of Sharkey County, told CNN that his town was essentially wiped out. Video footage captured as daylight broke showed houses reduced to rubble, cars flipped on their sides and trees stripped of their branches.
Occasionally, in the midst of the wreckage, a home would be spared, seemingly undamaged. “My city is gone. But we are resilient and we are going to come back strong,” Mr Walker said.
The National Weather Service issued an alert as the storm was hitting that did not mince words: “To protect your life, TAKE COVER NOW!” It continued: “You are in a life-threatening situation. Flying debris may be deadly to those caught without shelter. Mobile homes will be destroyed. Considerable damage to homes, businesses, and vehicles is likely and complete destruction is possible.”
Cornel Knight told The Associated Press news agency that he, his wife and their three-year-old daughter were at a relative’s home in Rolling Fork when the tornado struck. He said the sky was dark but “you could see the direction from every transformer that blew”.
He said it was “eerily quiet” as that happened. Mr Knight said he watched from a doorway until the tornado was, he estimated, less than a mile away. Then he told everyone in the house to take cover in a hallway.
He said the tornado struck another relative’s home across a cornfield. A wall in that home collapsed, trapping several people inside. He added that from his vantage point he could see lights from emergency vehicles at the partially collapsed home.
The damage in Rolling Fork was so widespread that several storm chasers — who follow severe weather and often put up livestreams showing dramatic funnel clouds — pleaded for search and rescue help. Others abandoned the chase to drive injured people to the hospitals themselves, although one emergency centre, the Sharkey-Issaquena Community Hospital to the west side of Rolling Fork, was reportedly damaged.
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The Sharkey County Sheriff’s Office in Rolling Fork reported gas leaks and people trapped in rubble. Some police units were unaccounted for in Sharkey, according to one local newspaper report.
A company that tracks and records power outages in the US, poweroutage.us, said that 40,000 homes were without power in Tennessee; 15,000 were without power in Mississippi; and 20,000 had no supply in Alabama.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said in a Twitter post on Friday night that search and rescue teams were active and that officials were sending in more ambulances and emergency assets. “Many in the MS Delta need your prayer and God’s protection tonight,” the post said. “Watch weather reports and stay cautious through the night, Mississippi!”
Earlier on Friday, torrential rainfall in Missouri caused flooding that was blamed for the deaths of two people who were in a car swept away by high water. Another person was missing in another Missouri county hit by flash flooding.
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