The tornado killed 23 people after it swept through Mississippi on Friday evening, destroying buildings and cutting off power, according to emergency services.
Golfball-sized hail storms swept through several southern states.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said dozens of people were injured and four were missing in the state as of 6:20 am Saturday.
He added: “Unfortunately, these numbers are expected to change.”
The agency reported in Twitter Along with personnel, search and rescue teams from numerous local and state agencies were reportedly deployed to assist those affected by the tornado.
The National Weather Service confirmed that the tornado caused damage about 60 miles northeast of Jackson, Mississippi.
The rural towns of Silver City and Rolling Fork reported devastation as the tornado raced northeast at 70 miles per hour unabated as it swept through towns like Winona and Amory into Alabama into the night.
National Weather Service issued a warning when the storm hit that didn’t hesitate to say, “To protect your life, HIDE COVER NOW!”
“You are in a life-threatening situation,” he warned. “Flying debris can kill those who are without shelter. Mobile homes are destroyed. Significant damage to homes, businesses and vehicles is likely, and possibly total destruction.”
Cornel Knight at the Associated Press that he, his wife, and their three-year-old daughter were visiting a relative in Rolling Fork when the tornado struck. He said the sky was dark, but “you could see the direction of every transformer that exploded.”
He said it was “eerily quiet” when it happened. Mr. Knight said he watched from a doorway until the tornado was, by his estimate, less than a mile away. He then told everyone in the house to take cover in the hallway.
He said the tornado hit another family member’s house in a huge cornfield from where he was. The wall in this house collapsed and several people were trapped.
Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker told WLBT-TV that shortly after the tornado, he was unable to leave his damaged home because the power lines had failed.
According to him, rescuers tried to deliver the victims to hospitals. He did not immediately realize how many people were injured.
Former Rolling Fork Mayor Fred Miller told the TV channel that the tornado blew the windows behind his house.
Storm chaser Reed Timmer tweeted that Rolling Fork was in immediate need of rescuers and was heading to a hospital in Vicksburg with injured townspeople.
Sharkey-Issaquena Community Hospital on the west side of Rolling Fork was damaged, WAPT reported.
The Sharkey County Sheriff’s Office in Rolling Fork reported gas leaks and people stuck in trash heaps, according to the Vicksburg News. According to the publication, some units of law enforcement agencies disappeared in Sharki.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said on Twitter late Friday that search and rescue teams are on their way and officials are sending more ambulances and supplies to the victims.
“Many at MS Delta need your prayers and God’s protection tonight,” the post reads. “Watch the weather reports and be careful all night, Mississippi!”
According to Walker Ashley, professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University, it was a supercell, a nasty kind of storm that produces the deadliest tornado and most destructive hail in the United States.
Earlier Friday, a car was swept away and two passengers drowned in southwest Missouri due to heavy rain that was part of a severe weather system.
Authorities said the car was carrying six youths who were swept away as the car tried to cross a bridge over a flooded creek in the town of Grovesspring.
Meanwhile, in another county in southwest Missouri, the search continued for a woman who went missing after a car was swept off the road by a flash flood from a small river.
The Logan Rogersville Fire Department said there was no sign of the woman. Two other occupants of the car were rescued. The crews planned to use boats and lead searchers along the river bank.
Parts of southern Missouri received nearly four inches of rain Thursday night and Friday morning as severe weather hit other areas. A suspected tornado made landfall in northern Texas early Friday morning.
Matt Elliott, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said severe weather is expected in several states.
The Storm Prediction Center warned that the greatest tornado threat would be in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Storms with damaging winds and hail were forecast from eastern Texas and southeast Oklahoma to parts of southeast Missouri and southern Illinois.
More than 49,000 customers in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee lost power as of Friday evening, according to poweroutage.us.
Additional report from the Press Association.
Source: I News
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