‘How anybody survived is unknown’: crews continue to sift through US tornado wreckage
- Dozens of people were killed and dozens more injured in Mississippi as the massive storm ripped through several towns on its hour-long path on Friday night
- Based on early data, the tornado received a preliminary EF-4 rating, which has top wind gusts between 265kph and 320kph
Search and recovery crews on Sunday resumed the daunting task of digging through the debris of flattened and battered homes, commercial buildings and municipal offices after hundreds of people were displaced by a deadly tornado that ripped through the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest regions of the US.
At least 25 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in Mississippi as the massive storm ripped through several towns on its hour-long path on Friday night. One man was killed after his trailer home flipped several times in Alabama.
The twister flattened entire blocks, obliterated houses, ripped a steeple off a church and toppled a municipal water tower. Even with recovery just starting, the National Weather Service warned of a risk of more severe weather on Sunday – including high winds, large hail and possible tornadoes – in eastern Louisiana, south central Mississippi and south central Alabama.
Based on early data, the tornado received a preliminary EF-4 rating, the National Weather Service office in Jackson said late Saturday in a tweet. An EF-4 tornado has top wind gusts between 166mph and 200mph (265kph and 320kph), according to the service. The Jackson office cautioned it was still gathering information on the tornado.
US President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for Mississippi on Sunday.
Biden ordered federal aid to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in the affected areas, a White House Statement said. The funding will be available to affected people in the counties of Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe, and Sharkey, the statement said.
The Friday night tornado devastated a swathe of the 2,000-person town of Rolling Fork, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars on their sides and toppling the town’s water tower. Other parts of the Deep South were digging out from damage caused by other suspected twisters. One man died in Morgan County, Alabama, the sheriff’s department there said in a tweet.
How anybody survived is unknown by me