(Jackson) At least 25 people have died after devastating tornadoes swept through the southern US state of Mississippi, ripping roofs off, smashing cars and flattening entire neighborhoods as the region braces for more severe weather Sunday.
“This is a tragedy,” state governor Tate Reeves said on Twitter, referring to “devastating damage” in the wake of these tornadoes that traveled more than 150 km from west to east. .
“The scale of loss and damage is evident in all affected areas today,” he said after visiting Silver City, one of the hardest hit cities.
The death toll stands at 25 and dozens injured, according to the Mississippi State Emergency Services (MSEMA). Four missing persons “have been found”, they added.
Search and rescue teams are on the job to find victims.
PHOTO ROGELIO V. SOLIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Numerous debris testify to the power of the tornado, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
US President Joe Biden spoke in a statement of “heartbreaking” images, and stressed that the federal state would do “everything it can to help”, “as long as it takes”.
In Rolling Fork, a town of some 2,000 people in western Mississippi, footage Saturday morning showed rows of homes torn from their meager foundations, streets littered with debris and cars on their roofs. Two semi-trailers were also piled up on top of each other.
Trees were uprooted and pieces of metal wrapped around the trunks while for one house, still standing but wobbly, the floor collapsed.
Some 4,800 residents were without power in Mississippi, and nearly 11,000 homes and businesses remained in the dark in neighboring Alabama, according to poweroutage.us.
Mississippi is bracing for still tumultuous weather on Sunday, including high winds and hail, with the state’s emergency management agency warning that “the possibility of tornadoes cannot be ruled out.”
“My town no longer exists”
“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.
Aaron Rigsby, “tornado hunter”, says he arrived on Friday evening and heard “screams of people trapped in the rubble, calling for help”.
PHOTO ROGELIO V. SOLIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rescuers dig through the debris to try to find victims.
“There was a lady who failed to get to safety in time and was mowed down, the roof of her house falling on her,” he told AFP by telephone. “I managed to free her from the rubble” and seek help when she was injured in the leg, he adds.
Another lady found herself “stuck between her sofa, pieces of roofing, and a fridge”, he said again, speaking of the “same scenes across the town”.
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 cleared of the debris of their houses, to be hospitalized.
“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.
A death in Alabama
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.
In neighboring Mississippi, Alabama, thunderstorms were also particularly intense and a man died after his trailer overturned, the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office said.
The “priority at this stage” is to ensure “the safety of people alive and to locate people to verify that they are safe”, said Malory White of MSEMA.
Tornadoes, a meteorological phenomenon as impressive as they are difficult to predict, are 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.