At least 23 dead in Mississippi, dozens injured, as tornadoes rip through region | CBC News

Powerful tornadoes tore through the Deep South on Friday night, killing at least 23 people in Mississippi, obliterating dozens of buildings and leaving an especially devastating mark in a rural town whose mayor declared, “My city is gone.”

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said in a Twitter post that search and rescue teams from local and state agencies were deployed to help victims impacted by the tornadoes.

The agency confirmed early Saturday that 23 people had died, four were missing and dozens were injured.

A few minutes later, the agency warned the casualty toll could go higher, tweeting: “Unfortunately, these numbers are expected to change.”

The U.S. National Weather Service confirmed a tornado caused damage about 96 kilometres northeast of Jackson, Miss.

The rural towns of Silver City and Rolling Fork reported destruction as the tornado swept northeast at 113 km/h without weakening, racing toward Alabama through towns, including Winona and Amory, into the night.

‘My city is gone’

Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker told CNN that his town was essentially wiped out.

“My city is gone. But we are resilient and we are going to come back strong,” he said.

The National Weather Service issued an alert Friday night as the storm was hitting that didn’t mince words: “To protect your life, TAKE COVER NOW!”

“You are in a life-threatening situation,” it warned. “Flying debris may be deadly to those caught without shelter. Mobile homes will be destroyed. Considerable damage to homes, businesses, and vehicles is likely and complete destruction is possible.”

Cornel Knight told The Associated Press that he, his wife and their three-year-old daughter were at a relative’s home in Rolling Fork when the tornado struck.

The sky was dark but “you could see the direction from every transformer that blew,” Knight said, and it was “eerily quiet” as that happened.

He said the tornado struck another relative’s home across a wide corn field from where he was. A wall in that home collapsed and trapped several people inside.

‘Dear Jesus, please help them’

The tornado looked so powerful on radar as it neared the town of Amory, about 40 kilometres southeast of Tupelo, that one Mississippi meteorologist paused to say a prayer after new radar information came in.

“Oh man,” WTVA’s Matt Laubhan said on the live broadcast. “Dear Jesus, please help them. Amen.”

The damage in Rolling Fork was so widespread that several storm chasers — who follow severe weather and often put up livestreams showing dramatic funnel clouds — pleaded for search and rescue help.

Others abandoned the chase to drive injured people to the hospitals themselves.

The Sharkey-Issaquena Community Hospital on the west side of Rolling Fork was damaged, WAPT reported. The Sharkey County Sheriff’s Office in Rolling Fork reported gas leaks and people trapped in piles of rubble, according to the Vicksburg News. Some law enforcement units were unaccounted for in Sharkey, according to the newspaper.

Power outages in 3 states

According to poweroutage.us, 40,000 customers were without power in Tennessee; 15,000 customers were left without power in Mississippi; and 20,000 were without power in Alabama.

Rolling Fork and the surrounding area has wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields and catfish farming ponds. More than a half-dozen shelters were opened in the state by emergency officials.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a Twitter post Friday night that search and rescue teams were active and that officials were sending in more ambulances and emergency assets.

This was a supercell, the nasty type of storm that brews the deadliest tornado and most damaging hail in the United States, said University of Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Walker Ashley.

What’s more, this was a nighttime one, which is “the worst kind,” he said.

Tornado experts like Ashley have been warning about increased risk exposure in the region because of people building more.

“You mix a particularly socioeconomically vulnerable landscape with a fast-moving, long-track nocturnal tornado, and, disaster will happen,” Ashley said in an email.