Storms spawn twisters in southern US
yaZoo CITy: Much of the South is facing the risk of more severe weather, forecasters said, after tornadoes struck parts of the region, causing heavy damage in some parts of Mississippi.
Parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, as well as corners of Arkansas and Georgia were at enhanced risk for the worst weather, according to the national Storm Prediction Centre yesterday.
That zone is home to more than 11 million people and includes the cities of Nashville, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Jackson, Mississippi.
“We’ll see all three threats as far as hail, wind and tornadoes on Tuesday,” said Mike Edmonston, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Mississippi.
Hail and high winds were buffeting north Texas on Monday night. Just before midnight, three tractor-trailers flipped over on Interstate 35 south of Dallas in the driving rain.
The weather could include wind gusts of up to 113 kph and hail to the size of golf balls, forecasters said, noting that tornadoes were likely in parts of Mississippi.
The risk follows heavy weather that moved across the South on Sunday and Monday, damaging homes and uprooting trees from Mississippi to West Virginia.
A tornado spotted in Atlanta forced thousands to seek shelter, and one man was killed when a falling tree brought power lines onto his vehicle in Douglasville, Georgia, Douglas County spokesman Rick Martin said.
Just south of Yazoo City, Vickie Savell was left with only scraps of the brand-new mobile home where she and her husband had moved in just eight days ago.
It had been lifted off its foundation and moved 8m. It was completely destroyed.
“Oh my God, my first new house in 40 years and it’s gone,” Savell said on Monday, amid tree tops strewn about the neighbourhood and the roar of chainsaws as people worked to clear roads.