Tornado’s deadly path of destruction

– Powerful weekend storms roared through the south-eastern United States, killing 18 people as violent weather left a trail of destruction, authorities said.

Families in Dougherty County in the state of Georgia huddled on the side of a road on Sunday, surveying the wrath of a storm that destroyed mobile homes and downed trees, according to video posted by county commission chair Chris Cohilas.

“This is absolutely devastating,” Cohilas said in the video uploaded to Facebook. “It looks like a nuclear bomb went off.”

The county’s emergency management agency tweeted that shelters were being set up for displaced residents.

At least 14 people had died in Georgia over the weekend, the state’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency said.

Five were still missing, according to Adel mayor Buddy Duke amid a scene of flattened houses, trees and cars.

Four others died and 20 were injured on Saturday by a tornado that swept through southern Mississippi, that state’s emergency services agency said. – AFP