(Washington) At least 23 people were killed when a tornado passed through Mississippi, the governor of this southern state said on Saturday, leaving behind a ravaged landscape.
“It’s a tragedy,” Governor Tate Reeves said on Twitter, referring to “devastating damage” after the tornado passed through the Mississippi River more than 150 km from west to east on Friday evening.
And the toll could well get worse.
“Unfortunately, these numbers are expected to change” upwards, the Mississippi State Emergency Services (MSEMA) said on Twitter. Search and rescue teams are on the job to find victims.
In Rolling Fork, a town of some 2,000 people in western Mississippi, images Saturday morning showed entire rows of homes torn from their meager foundations, streets littered with debris and cars flipped on their roofs. Two semi-trailers were also piled up on top of each other.
PHOTO ROGELIO V. SOLIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Numerous debris testify to the power of the tornado, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
Trees were uprooted and pieces of metal wrapped around the trunks while for one house, still standing but wobbly, the floor collapsed.
“Almost everything has been swept away” in the city, Patricia Perkins, a 61-year-old resident, told AFP by telephone.
“Most of the shops were razed” by the tornado, says this employee of a tool store.
“My town no longer exists”
Ricky Cox, owner of a seed business in Rolling Fork, told AFP by telephone that it was “complicated to get into town” last night.
With the darkness, the damage was not easy to assess, but in the early morning, “it’s much worse than I thought,” said the 61-year-old man.
PHOTO ROGELIO V. SOLIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rescuers dig through the debris to try to find victims.
“I know that two friends lost their lives”, the tornado “hit directly” their houses, he explains.
On CNN, the mayor of Rolling Fork, Eldridge Walker, asserted: “my town no longer exists”.
According to the city councilor, several victims were located and removed from the debris of their homes, to be taken to hospitals and treated.
“Houses that have been torn away can be replaced, but you cannot replace a life,” Eldridge Walker said.
“The losses will be felt in these cities forever,” Governor Tate Reeves tweeted, asking to pray for the victims and their families.
According to ABC, at least 13 people died in Sharkey County, along with three in neighboring Carroll County and two others in Monroe County.
Separately, a Silver City, Humphreys County police officer reported one person dead to ABC.
“Persevere”
“We heard a noise, like it was a train, for 45 seconds to a minute; then it was over,” Woodrow Johnson, a local Humphrey County official, told CNN of the tornado.
Visibly moved, he said he lost his house.
“We are strong, we will persevere, and we will recover,” added Woodrow Johnson.
MSEMA’s Malory White told local channel WJTV that the “priority at this stage” was to ensure “the safety of those alive and locating people to verify that they are safe”.
Tornado warnings had been issued Friday in several counties in Mississippi.
As of 2:48 a.m. Saturday (3:48 a.m. EST), the National Weather Service (NWS) branch in Mississippi’s capital, Jackson, reported that “the tornado watch has been lifted throughout the area. concerned”.
“Further showers and more thunderstorms are expected in our area,” he tweeted, stressing that “they shouldn’t be heavy based on the forecast.”
This meteorological phenomenon, as impressive as it is difficult to predict, is relatively common in the United States, especially in the center and south of the country.
As of December 2021, around 80 people had lost their lives after tornadoes hit Kentucky.