ROLLING FORK (Mississippi, US), March 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tornado-ravaged Mississippi is facing more extreme weather after deadly storms have killed at least 26 and displaced thousands as Biden decleared a state of emergency.
The tornadoes tore through Mississippi and the neighboring Alabama on Friday night and left a trail of havoc more than 160 kilometers long across the state. At least 25 people have died in Mississippi, with another person confirmed dead in Alabama.
Among the victims were a three-year-old and her dad who died after a tornado hit their home in Wren, Mississippi. In Rolling Fork, one of Mississippi’s worst-hit towns which has been reduced to piles of rubble, a couple died in each other’s arms when the tornado dropped their neighbor’s 18-wheeler on their house in the middle of the night.
After President Joe Biden freed up disaster aid, the National Weather Service (NWS) warned residents of Mississippi and Alabama of potential new ‘supercell thunderstorms’ that could ‘produce a few strong tornadoes and very large hail.’
Mississippi governor Tate Reeves warned on Sunday that the risks seem to be ‘getting worse and worse, not better’ as the National Weather Service warned of more extreme weather in Mississippi and in neigboring Alabama.
Search-and-rescue workers surveyed the damage of shredded homes, flattened buildings and smashed cars in Rolling Fork, a small town all but wiped out by nature’s wrath.
Under warm spring sunshine and cloudless blue skies, stunned residents walked among obliterated homes, sifting through debris and comforting one another as crews fought fires, conducted searches and cleared emergency routes.
Before-and-after satellite images released late Sunday showed utter ruin across parts of Rolling Fork, with homes destroyed and trees ripped out of the earth.
The American Red Cross moved into a National Guard building in Rolling Fork hours after the storm razed much of the town, home to around 2,000 people.
An area was set up as an infirmary and boxes full of food and medical supplies were shuttled in to support storm victims who had lost everything, said John Brown, a Red Cross official for Alabama and Mississippi.
The severe weather also left a man dead in Alabama when he was trapped under an overturned trailer, the sheriff’s office in Morgan County said.
Officials including US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas gathered in Rolling Fork Sunday afternoon, praising rescue efforts and pledging support “for the long haul.”
“It is heartbreaking to hear of the loss of life, to see the devastation firsthand,” Mayorkas told a press conference held with Governor Tate Reeves and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) head Deanne Criswell.
He warned that the country is seeing “extreme weather events increasing… in gravity, severity and frequency and we have to build our communities to be best prepared for them.”
Earlier Sunday, Criswell said on ABC that the tornado zone was “still very much in life-saving, life-sustaining mode.”
She praised first responders, saying some “may have lost their homes themselves,” and that FEMA had sent teams, with more on their way, to “help plan for and start the recovery process.”
Biden’s emergency order to support recovery efforts will provide grants for temporary housing, home repairs and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, the White House said on Sunday.
Reeves thanked Biden on Twitter “for recognizing the scale of the damage in Mississippi and quickly approving our disaster declaration — a critical step in disaster response.”
Electricity repairs were underway Sunday to restore service, but by evening the number of customers without power rose to 61,000 total in thunderstorm-hit Mississippi and Alabama, monitor poweroutage.us reported.
Similar destruction plagued twister-hit Silver City, where residents were seen salvaging what they could from their destroyed homes. — NNN-AGENCIES
