Mississippi emergency officials said 23 people were killed by tornadoes that ripped across the state on Friday night, damaging buildings and knocking out electricity as hail the size of golf balls travelled through multiple southern states.
As of 6:20 a.m. Saturday, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported 23 deaths, scores of injuries, and four people missing across the state. According to a tweet from the organisation, search and rescue teams from many local and state agencies, as well as employees, were mobilised to assist those affected by the storms.
A tornado inflicted damage roughly 60 miles northeast of Jackson, Mississippi, according to the National Weather Service. The remote settlements of Silver City and Rolling Fork were destroyed as the tornado moved northeast at 70 mph, racing into Alabama through towns like Winona and Amory into the night.
When the storm approached, the National Weather Service issued a blunt warning: “TO PROTECT YOUR LIFE, TAKE COVER NOW!”
“You are in a potentially fatal position,” it cautioned. “Those caught without shelter may perish as a result of flying debris.” The mobile homes will be demolished. Homes, businesses, and cars are expected to sustain significant damage, and total destruction is probable.”
Cornel Knight, his wife, and their 3-year-old daughter were visiting a relative’s house in Rolling Fork when the tornado struck, according to The Associated Press. The sky was dark, but “you could see the direction from every transformer that blew,” he said.
He described the scene as “eerily silent.” Knight claimed he stood in a doorway until the storm was less than a mile distant. Then he directed everyone in the home to seek refuge in a hallway. He claimed that the tornado hit another relative’s house across a large corn field from where he was. A wall fell in one house, trapping numerous individuals inside. Knight told AP over the phone that he could see lights from emergency cars at the half collapsed house.
Rolling Fork mayor Eldridge Walker told WLBT-TV that power lines were down and he couldn’t get out of his damaged home right after the tornado hit. He stated that emergency personnel were attempting to transport injured persons to hospitals. He didn’t know how many individuals had been injured right away.
Fred Miller, a former mayor of Rolling Fork, told the news station that a tornado smashed the windows out of the back of his house.
Storm chaser Reed Timmer tweeted that Rolling Fork was in desperate need of emergency responders and that he was on his way to a Vicksburg hospital with injured people.
According to WAPT, the Sharkey-Issaquena Community Hospital on the west side of Rolling Fork was destroyed.
According to the Vicksburg News, the Sharkey County Sheriff’s Office near Rolling Fork reported petrol spills and persons stuck in rubble mounds. According to the newspaper, some law enforcement units were missing in Sharkey.
Cotton, corn, and soybean farms, as well as catfish farming ponds, abound in Rolling Fork and the surrounding area. Emergency officials launched more than a half-dozen shelters around the state.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Friday night on Twitter that search and rescue teams were engaged and that officials were deploying more ambulances and emergency assets to individuals in need.
“People in the Mississippi Delta need your prayers and God’s protection tonight,” according to the message. “Monitor weather reports and be cautious all night, Mississippi!”
This was a supercell, the type of storm that produces the deadliest tornadoes and the most devastating hail in the United States, according to Walker Ashley, a meteorology professor at the University of Northern Illinois. Furthermore, it’s a wet one at night, which he describes as “the worst sort.”
Meteorologists predicted a large tornado danger for the broad region, not the precise spot, as early as March 17, according to Ashley, who was discussing it with his colleagues as early as March 17. On March 19, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center issued a long-range warning for the area, he added.
Tornado experts, such as Ashley, have warned of growing risk exposure in the region as people build more.
“Disaster will occur when you combine a very socioeconomically sensitive area with a fast-moving, long-track nocturnal tornado,” Ashley wrote in an email.
Earlier in the day, a car was carried away and two passengers drowned in southern Missouri due to torrential rainfall from a severe weather system. According to authorities, six young adults were in the vehicle that was washed away while attempting to cross a bridge across a flooded rill near Grovespring.
Four of the six survived the water. Devon Holt, 20, of Grovespring, was discovered about 3:30 a.m., and Alexander Roman-Ranelli, 19, of Springfield, was discovered about six hours later, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Thomas Young.
According to Young, the driver told investigators that the rain made it difficult to notice that water from a rill had submerged the bridge.
Meanwhile, the hunt for a lady who went missing after flash flooding from a tiny river drove her car off the road continued in another southwestern Missouri county. There was no indication of the woman, according to the Logan Rogersville Fire Protection District. Two additional people in the car were saved. Workers intended to employ boats as well as walkers along the riverbank.
When a woman’s SUV was washed away in raging flood waters near Granby, Missouri, Layton Hoyer braved the frigid waters to save her.
When severe weather impacted other places, some parts of southern Missouri received nearly 3 inches (8 centimetres) of rain Thursday night and into Friday morning. A probable tornado touched down in north Texas early Friday.
The extreme weather was forecast throughout many states, according to Matt Elliott, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
The Storm Prediction Center warned that tornadoes would be most dangerous across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Storms with destructive winds and hail were predicted to move from eastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma into southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois.
According to poweroutage.us, more than 49,000 people in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee have lost power as of Friday night.
A probable tornado impacted the southwest portion of Wise County around 5 a.m., damaging homes and downing trees and electrical lines, according to Cody Powell, the county’s emergency management coordinator. According to Powell, no injuries were recorded.
Although the weather service had not confirmed a tornado, meteorologist Matt Stalley noted that damage to residences had been reported in nearby Parker County.