Tornado kills 25 in Mississippi
ROLLING FORK (AP) – Rescuers raced Saturday to search for survivors and help hundreds of people left homeless after a powerful tornado cut a devastating path through Mississippi, killing at least 25 people, injuring dozens, and flattening entire blocks as it carved a path of destruction for more than an hour.
The tornado devastated a hour and 200 mph (267 to 322 swath of the Mississippi Delta kilometers per hour), according town of Rolling Fork, reducing to the service. homes to piles of rubble, flipping The Jackson office cautioned cars on their sides and toppling it was still gathering information the town’s water tower. on the tornado.
Residents hunkered down in The Mississippi Emergency bath tubs and hallways during Management Agency announced Friday night’s storm and later late Saturday afternoon in a broke into a John Deere store tweet that the death toll had that they converted into a triage risen to 25 and that dozens of center for the wounded. people were injured.
“There’s nothing left,” said Four people previously Wonder Bolden, holding her reported missing had been found. granddaughter Journey while Other parts of the Deep South were standing outside the remnants digging out from damage caused of her mother’s now-leveled by other suspected twisters. mobile home in Rolling Fork. One man died in Morgan
“There’s just the breeze that’s County, Alabama, the sheriff’s running, going through – just department there said in a tweet. nothing.” Throughout Saturday,
Based on early data, the survivors walked around dazed tornado received a preliminary and in shock as they broke EF-4 rating, the National through debris and fallen trees Weather Service office in Jackson with chain saws, searching for said late Saturday in a tweet. survivors. Power lines were
An EF-4 tornado has top wind pinned under decades-old oaks, gusts between 166 miles per their roots torn from the ground.