The Associated Press reported that at least 25 people were killed in Mississippi and one in Alabama late on Friday as a strong tornado and thunderstorms swept across those states.
After the tornado wreaked havoc for more than an hour, killing dozens, and destroying entire blocks, hundreds were left homeless.
A water tower was knocked over in the town of Rolling Fork in the Mississippi Delta. During the storm on Friday night, locals took cover in bathtubs and hallways. Later, they broke into a John Deere store and turned it into a triage centre for the injured.
“There’s nothing left,” a resident, Wonder Bolden, who was holding her granddaughter, told AP.
The damage caused by further suspected twisters was being repaired in various areas of the Deep South. The Morgan County sheriff’s office in Alabama tweeted that one man had died.
According to Nicholas Price, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, Mississippi, the tornado remained on the ground for approximately an hour and left a path of destruction that was around 170 miles (274 km) long.
Storm chaser Michael Searcy spent hours assisting in the rescue of the people who were stranded after he observed the tornado move towards Rolling Fork.
“As soon as we would go from one vehicle to the next vehicle or from building to building, we could hear screams and we could hear cries for help,” he told Reuters. “And we were just basically in small groups, digging through the rubble, trying to find and extricate people.”
One family managed to escape by taking cover in a bathroom while the rest of the house fell around them and a van was placed on top of the house by strong winds, according to Searcy.
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