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Tag: Tornadoes

  • Tornado survivors recount flying debris, destroyed buildings

    Tornado survivors recount flying debris, destroyed buildings

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    WYNNE, Ark. — With tornadoes hitting the Midwest and the South this weekend, some survivors said they emerged from their homes to find buildings ripped apart, vehicles tossed around like toys, shattered glass and felled trees.

    J.W. Spencer, 88, had never experienced a tornado before, but when he and his wife saw on TV that a tornado was nearing their small town of Wynne, Arkansas, he opened a front window and rear door in his house to relieve air pressure. The couple scurried into the bathroom, where they got into the bathtub and covered themselves with quilts and blankets for protection.

    Fifteen minutes later, the storm unleashed its fury. Debris came whistling through the house.

    “We just rode it out,” Spencer said on Saturday. “We heard stuff falling, loud noises. And then it quit. It got quiet.”

    After it passed, the couple emerged to see their neighborhood devastated by the tornado. Many large trees were down. Houses were severely damaged. The high school’s roof was shredded and the windows were blown out. But Spencer and his wife were not injured. The giant trees on their property lay sideways on the lawn and the house had some minor damage.

    “We come through it real good, as far as the physical part,” Spencer said.

    Near a theater in Belvidere, Illinois, where a tornado killed one man and injured 40 concertgoers, Ross Potter picked up glass shards Friday in front of his building. The last time the town was devastated to this extent from a tornado was in 1967.

    Ambulances whirred by after the theater was hit.

    “They took, I can’t even remember how many people,” Potter said. He was lucky — only a few of his building’s windows were broken, mostly on the second floor. Across the street, most of the brick siding on a storefront was ripped away.

    Back in Wynne in northeastern Arkansas, Alan Purser stopped in his pickup truck to chat with Spencer. Purser described how he rode out the tornado with his cats in his home, which is being remodeled. He took a risk, sheltering in the sun room which is covered by glass, but it was one of the few rooms not being remodeled.

    “I just lay down with my cats, and lay a blanket over me, and let it rumble,” he said of the tornado that flipped over the camper van parked outside.

    When a tornado hit Little Rock, Arkansas, nine firefighters were in Fire Station No. 9, located in one of the most devastated areas of the city. They sheltered in the chief’s office as the tornado damaged their building.

    “If I said it wasn’t scary, I’d be lying,” Capt. Ben Hammond said Saturday.

    Once the tornado passed, the firefighters began working to help injured residents and to clear debris blocking their equipment.

    “Once you address all the people you can see, then you’ve got to start looking for the people you can’t see,” he said.

    The fire station has served as a shelter for neighbors amid fears that another storm was coming.

    ___

    Associated Press reporters Harm Venhuizen in Belvidere, Illinois, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this story. Selsky reported from Salem, Oregon.

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  • At least 18 dead after tornadoes rake US Midwest, South

    At least 18 dead after tornadoes rake US Midwest, South

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    WYNNE, Ark. — Storms that dropped possibly dozens of tornadoes killed at least 18 people in small towns and big cities across the South and Midwest, tearing a path through the Arkansas capital, collapsing the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois, and stunning people throughout the region Saturday with the damage’s scope.

    Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least seven states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees, and lay waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country. The dead included seven in Tennessee’s McNairy County, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, and three in Sullivan, Indiana.

    Other deaths in the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were reported in Alabama, Illinois and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where the mayor said more than 2,000 buildings were in a tornado’s path.

    Stunned residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke Saturday to find the high school’s roof shredded and its windows blown out. Huge trees lay on the ground, their stumps reduced to nubs. Broken walls, windows and roofs pocked homes and businesses.

    Debris and memories of regular life lay scattered inside the damaged shells of homes and strewn on lawns: clothing, insulation, roofing paper, toys, splintered furniture, a pickup truck with its windows shattered.

    “I’m sad that my town has been hit so hard,” said Heidi Jenkins, a salon owner. “Our school is gone, my church is gone. I’m sad for all the people who lost their homes.”

    Recovery was already underway, with workers using chain saws to cut fallen trees and bulldozers moving material from shattered structures. Utility trucks worked to restore power. Groups of volunteers gathered to plan their day.

    At least seven people died in Tennessee, in McNairy County east of Memphis along the Mississippi border, said David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville.

    “The majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas,” Leckner said, adding that although it appeared all people had been accounted for, crews were going door to door to be sure.

    In Belvidere, Illinois, some of the 260 people attending a heavy metal concert at the Apollo Theatre pulled a man from the rubble after part of the roof collapsed; he was dead when emergency workers arrived. Officials said 28 other people were injured at the theater, some severely.

    “They dragged someone out from the rubble, and I sat with him and I held his hand and I was (telling him), ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do,” concertgoer Gabrielle Lewellyn told WTVO-TV.

    The venue’s Facebook page said the bands scheduled to perform were Morbid Angel, Crypta, Skeletal Remains and Revocation.

    Crews worked Saturday to clean up around the Apollo, with forklifts pulling away loosely hanging bricks. Business owners picked up shards of glass and covered shattered windows.

    Three people died in Indiana’s Sullivan County, near the Illinois line about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis.

    Sullivan Mayor Clint Lamb said at a news conference that an area south of the county seat of about 4,000 “is essentially unrecognizable right now” and that several people were rescued from rubble overnight. There were reports of as many as 12 people injured, he said, and search-and-rescue teams combed damaged areas.

    “Quite frankly, I’m really, really shocked there isn’t more as far as human issues,” he said, adding that recovery “is going to be a very long process.”

    In the Little Rock area, at least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, authorities said. Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott said that 2,100 homes and businesses were in the tornado’s path, but that no assessment had been done on how many were damaged.

    Joanna McFadden was at a nail salon with two other people when the tornado struck.

    “The only way we knew the tornado was coming, the leaves were swirling, that’s the only way we knew, it looked like it was standing still,” McFadden said. She and the others took shelter in the back.

    Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to help local responders. She and the mayor toured hard-hit neighborhoods, including one with a badly damaged fire station. Sanders praised its firefighters for moving quickly.

    A suspected tornado killed a woman in northern Alabama’s Madison County, said county official Mac McCutcheon. And in northern Mississippi’s Pontotoc County, officials confirmed one death and four injuries.

    The storms struck just hours after President Joe Biden visited the Mississippi community of Rolling Fork, where tornadoes last week destroyed parts of town.

    Tornadoes also caused damage in eastern Iowa, including one just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa. Television footage showed toppled power poles and roofs ripped off buildings and homes in the area.

    It could take days to determine the exact number of tornadoes, said Bill Bunting, chief of forecast operations at the Storm Prediction Center. There were also hundreds of reports of large hail and damaging winds, he said.

    “That’s a quite active day. But that’s not unprecedented,” he said.

    Hundreds of thousands lost power because of the sprawling storm system that also brought wildfires to the southern Plains and blizzard conditions to the Upper Midwest, and left in its wake high winds. A threat of tornadoes and hail remained for the Northeast, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and New York.

    More than 530,000 homes and businesses in the affected area lacked power at midday Saturday, over 200,000 of them in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.

    Hail broke windows on cars and buildings northeast of Peoria, Illinois. And blizzard conditions whipped parts of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin, cutting power to tens of thousands in the Twin Cities area. Parts of Interstate 29 were closed.

    Nearly 100 new wildfires were reported Friday in Oklahoma, according to the state forest service, and firefighters hoped to gain ground against them Saturday. Fires were expected to remain a danger through the week.

    ___

    DeMillo reported from Little Rock. Associated Press writers around the country contributed to this report, including Harm Venhuizen in Belvidere, Illinois, and Corey Williams in Detroit.

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  • Tornadoes In The South And Midwest Pulverize Homes; 1 Dead

    Tornadoes In The South And Midwest Pulverize Homes; 1 Dead

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    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A monster storm system tore through the South and Midwest on Friday, spawning tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centers, overturned vehicles and uprooted trees as people raced for shelter. At least one person was reported dead and two dozen or more were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area.

    The town of Wynne in eastern Arkansas was also devastated, and officials reported destroyed homes and people trapped in the debris as unrelenting tornadoes kept moving east into the evening. Police in Covington, Tennessee, reported downed power lines and toppled trees.

    There were more confirmed twisters in Iowa, damaging hail fell in Illinois and wind-whipped grass fires blazed in Oklahoma, as the storm system threatened a broad swath of the country home to some 85 million people.

    The destructive weather came as President Joe Biden toured the aftermath of a deadly tornado that struck in Mississippi one week ago and promised the government would help the area recover.

    The Little Rock tornado tore first through neighborhoods in the western part of the city and shredded a small shopping center that included a Kroger grocery store. It then crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock and surrounding cities, where widespread damage was reported to homes, businesses and vehicles.

    In the evening, officials in Pulaski County announced a confirmed fatality in North Little Rock but did not immediately give details.

    The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock was operating at a mass casualty level and preparing for up to 20 patients, spokesperson Leslie Taylor said. Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock officials told KATV in the afternoon that 21 people had checked in there with tornado-caused injuries, including five in critical condition.

    Mayor Frank Scott Jr., who announced that he was requesting assistance from the National Guard, tweeted in the evening that officials were aware of 24 people who had been hospitalized in the city.

    “Property damage is extensive and we are still responding,” he said.

    Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders activated 100 members of the Arkansas National Guard to help local authorities respond to the damage throughout the state.

    The interior of store is damaged after a severe storm swept through Little Rock, Ark., Friday, March 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo)

    In Little Rock, resident Niki Scott took cover in the bathroom after her husband called to say a tornado was headed her way. She could hear glass shattering as the tornado roared past, and emerged afterward to find that her house was one of the few on her street that didn’t have a tree fall on it.

    “It’s just like everyone says. It got really quiet, then it got really loud,” Scott said afterward, as chainsaws roared and sirens blared in the area.

    Outside a Guitar Center, five people were captured on video aiming their phones at the swirling sky. “Uh, no, that’s an actual tornado, y’all. It’s coming this way,” Red Padilla, a singer and songwriter in the band Red and the Revelers, said in the video.

    Padilla told The Associated Press that he and five bandmates sheltered inside the store for around 15 minutes with over a dozen others while the tornado passed. The power went out, and they used the flashlights on their phones to see.

    “It was real tense,” Padilla said.

    At Clinton National Airport, passengers and workers sheltered temporarily in bathrooms.

    “Praying for all those who were and remain in the path of this storm,” Sanders, who declared a state of emergency, said on Twitter. “Arkansans must continue to stay weather aware as storms are continuing to move through.”

    About 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee, the small city of Wynne, Arkansas, saw “widespread damage” from a tornado, Sanders confirmed.

    City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter told AP by phone that Wynne was without power and roads were full of debris.

    “I’m in a panic trying to get home, but we can’t get home,” she said. “Wynne is so demolished. … There’s houses destroyed, trees down on streets.”

    Police Chief Richard Dennis told WHBQ-TV that the city suffered “total destruction” and multiple people were trapped.

    Multiple tornadoes were reported moving through parts of eastern Iowa, with sporadic damage to buildings. Images showed at least one flattened barn and some houses with roofing and siding ripped off.

    One tornado veered just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa, which cancelled a watch party at an on-campus arena for the women’s basketball Final Four game. Video from KCRG-TV showed toppled power poles and roofs ripped off an apartment building in the suburb of Coralville and significantly damaged homes in the city of Hills.

    Nearly 90,000 customers in Arkansas lost power, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages.

    About 32,000 were without electricity in neighboring Oklahoma, where where wind gusts of up to 60 mph fueled fast-moving grass fires. People were urged to evacuate homes in far northeast Oklahoma City, and troopers shut down portions of Interstate 35 near the suburb of Edmond.

    More outages were reported in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas.

    In Illinois, Ben Wagner, chief radar operator for the Woodford County Emergency Management Agency, said hail broke windows on cars and buildings in the area of Roanoke, northeast of Peoria.

    Fire crews were battling several blazes near El Dorado, Kansas, and some residents were asked to evacuate, including about 250 elementary school children who were relocated to a high school.

    At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, a traffic management program was put into effect that caused arriving planes to be delayed by nearly two hours on average, WFLD-TV reported.

    The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center had forecast an unusually large outbreak of thunderstorms with the potential to cause hail, damaging wind gusts and strong tornadoes that could move for long distances over the ground.

    Such “intense supercell thunderstorms ” are only expected to become more common, especially in Southern states, as temperatures rise around the world.

    Meteorologists said conditions Friday were similar to those a week ago that unleashed the devastating twister that killed at least 21 people and damaged some 2,000 homes in Mississippi.

    The toll was especially steep in western Mississippi’s Sharkey County, where 13 people were killed in a county of 3,700 residents. Winds of up to 200 mph (322 kph) barreled through the rural farming town of Rolling Fork, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars and toppling the town’s water tower.

    The hazardous conditions were a result of strong southerly winds transporting copious amounts of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico north, where they will interact with the strengthening storm system.

    The weather service is forecasting another batch of intense storms next Tuesday in the same general area as last week. At least the first 10 days of April will be rough, Accuweather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said earlier this week.

    Associated Press writers Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Harm Venhuizenin in Madison, Wisconsin, Isabella O’Malley in Philadelphia, Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, Michael Goldberg in Jackson, Mississippi and Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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  • At least 2 killed, dozens hurt when tornado strikes Arkansas as dangerous storms spread across 15 states

    At least 2 killed, dozens hurt when tornado strikes Arkansas as dangerous storms spread across 15 states

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    A tornado plowed through Arkansas’ capital and surrounding areas Friday afternoon, reducing rooftops to splinters, toppling vehicles and tossing debris on roadways as people raced for shelter.

    At least two people were killed in the northeast Arkansas city of Wynne, the Cross County Coroner’s Office confirmed to CBS News. 

    Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. reported on Twitter Friday evening that at least 24 people had been hospitalized with storm-related injuries. He added that officials were “not aware of any fatalities…at this time.”

    He described the property damage as “extensive.”

    The Little Rock Fire Department reported heavy damage and debris in the western end of the city, saying on its Facebook page that firefighters were performing rescue operations in the area. More than 350,000 people were at risk as what the National Weather Service called a “confirmed large and destructive tornado” tore through business districts and neighborhoods in Little Rock and North Little Rock.

    The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock was operating at a mass casualty level and expecting at least 15 to 20 patients from the tornado, spokesperson Leslie Taylor said. Several people had already been transported to the medical center, but an exact count was not immediately available.

    Mark Hulsey, a special projects manager for Pulaski County, which includes Little Rock, said at least one person was in critical condition. The county’s unincorporated areas saw structural damage from the tornado but crews haven’t yet encountered any buildings that were “flattened or completely destroyed,” Hulsey said.

    Passengers and airport employees at Clinton National Airport in Little Rock took shelter in bathrooms. And aerial footage showed several rooftops were torn from homes in Little Rock and nearby Benton.

    Nearly 70,000 customers in Arkansas were out of power on Friday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages; about 37,000 were without power in neighboring Oklahoma.

    “Significant damage has occurred in Central Arkansas,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted. “I’m in constant communication with AR State Police and @AR_Emergencies who are working with local law enforcement to assist anyone injured. Praying for all those who were and remain in the path of this storm.”

    “Tornadoes have affected many areas of Pulaski County,” the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office also tweeted. Pulaski County includes the Little Rock metropolitan area. 

    “Do not stop to survey damage,” it wrote. “If you are traveling home you may have to take an alternate route.”

    Massive storms brewing over at least 15 states in the Midwest and southern U.S. on Friday had meteorologists urging people to brace for dangerous weather, saying the conditions are similar to those a week ago that unleashed a devastating twister that killed at least 21 people in Mississippi.

    More than 85 million people were under weather advisories Friday as the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center forecast an unusually large outbreak of thunderstorms with the potential to cause hail, damaging wind gusts and strong tornadoes that could move for long distances over the ground.

    Ping-pong ball-sized hail was reported in Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa.

    The area at greatest risk for storms on Friday follows a large stretch of the Mississippi River from Wisconsin all the way to Mississippi, with rare high-risk advisories centered around Memphis; and between Davenport, Iowa, and Quincy, Illinois and surrounding areas.

    Forecasters issued tornado watches over both high-risk regions until Friday evening, with the weather service expecting numerous tornadoes and calling it a “particularly dangerous situation.”

    All told, by Friday afternoon, tornado watches issued by the National Weather Service cover most of Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa; western Illinois; and parts of Wisconsin, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi.

    The “intense supercell thunderstorms ” predicted for Friday afternoon are only expected to become more common, especially in Southern states, as temperatures rise around the world.

    The major population centers at high risk for storms starting Friday afternoon include Chicago; St. Louis; Little Rock and Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

    “There will be lots of thunderstorms … tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail,” said Northern Illinois meteorology professor and tornado expert Victor Gensini.

    People in those areas should stock emergency supplies, prepare for power outages, avoid getting stranded in places vulnerable to falling trees or severe hail, and park vehicles in garages if possible, meteorologists said.

    Forecasters warned of a “relatively rare, significant severe weather threat” around Chicago that could include powerful winds, tornadoes and large hail.

    In Iowa City, the University of Iowa canceled Friday’s watch party for fans who planned to gather for the women’s basketball Final Four game against South Carolina. Deputy Director of Athletics Matt Henderson said in a statement the decision was made “due to the unpredictable timing of possible severe weather and potential storm impact.”

    Last Friday night, a vicious tornado in Mississippi killed at least 21 people, injured dozens and flattened entire blocks as it carved a path of destruction for more than an hour. About 2,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

    The toll was especially steep in western Mississippi’s Sharkey County, where 13 people were killed in a county of 3,700 residents. Winds of up to 200 mph barreled through the rural farming town of Rolling Fork, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars and toppling the town’s water tower.

    President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to visit Rolling Fork on Friday.

    Gensini said Friday’s atmospheric setup is similar to the conditions that were present during Mississippi’s deadly storm.

    The hazardous forecast is a result of strong southerly winds transporting copious amounts of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico north, where they will interact with the strengthening storm system.

    In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem ordered state executive branch offices to be closed Friday in parts of the state, as freezing rain, snow and high winds were expected. Many counties were under blizzard or ice storm warnings.

    The weather service is forecasting another batch of intense storms next Tuesday in the same general area as last week. At least the first 10 days of April will be rough, Accuweather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said earlier this week.

    Bill Bunting, the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center chief of forecasting operations, said people need to have a severe weather plan in place that includes multiple ways to receive storm warning information.

    “We’ve all seen the coverage of the heartbreaking situations in other parts of the country. Our fervent hope is that people pay attention to the forecasts that have been out for several days now regarding Friday’s threat,” Bunting said.

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  • Dangerous storms, tornadoes forecast for US Midwest, South

    Dangerous storms, tornadoes forecast for US Midwest, South

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    JACKSON, Miss. — Meteorologists are urging people in parts of the Midwest and southern U.S. to be ready Friday for dangerous weather including tornadoes, saying the conditions are similar to those a week ago that unleashed a devastating twister that killed at least 21 people in Mississippi.

    An outbreak of severe thunderstorms has the potential to cause hail, damaging wind gusts and tornadoes that could be strong and move on the ground over long distances, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.

    The major population centers at greatest risk for storms starting Friday afternoon include Memphis, Tennessee, Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as of Thursday afternoon’s forecast. But people throughout eastern Iowa, western and northern Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas should also be prepared, said Northern Illinois meteorology professor and tornado expert Victor Gensini.

    “There will be lots of thunderstorms … tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail,” he said.

    People in those areas should stock emergency supplies, prepare for power outages, avoid getting stranded in places vulnerable to falling trees or severe hail, and park vehicles in garages if possible, meteorologists said.

    Last Friday night, a vicious tornado in Mississippi killed at least 21 people, injured dozens and flattened entire blocks as it carved a path of destruction for more than an hour. About 2,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

    The toll was especially steep in western Mississippi’s Sharkey County, where 13 people were killed in a county of 3,700 residents. Winds of up to 200 mph (322 kph) barreled through the rural farming town of Rolling Fork, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars and toppling the town’s water tower.

    President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to visit Rolling Fork on Friday.

    Gensini said Friday’s atmospheric setup is similar to the conditions that were present during Mississippi’s deadly storm.

    The hazardous forecast is a result of strong southerly winds transporting copious amounts of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico north, where they will interact with the strengthening storm system.

    The weather service is forecasting another batch of intense storms next Tuesday in the same general area as last week. At least the first 10 days of April will be rough, Accuweather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said earlier this week.

    Bill Bunting, the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center chief of forecasting operations, said people need to have a severe weather plan in place that includes multiple ways to receive storm warning information.

    “We’ve all seen the coverage of the heartbreaking situations in other parts of the country. Our fervent hope is that people pay attention to the forecasts that have been out for several days now regarding Friday’s threat,” Bunting said.

    ___

    Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington. AP writer Isabella O’Malley contributed from Philadelphia.

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  • Watch out: Series of dangerous storms target Midwest, South

    Watch out: Series of dangerous storms target Midwest, South

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    A seemingly relentless series of severe storms, likely with deadly tornadoes, are forecast to rip across parts of America’s Midwest and South over the next couple weeks, especially Friday, meteorologists said.

    An unusual weather pattern has set in, last week triggering the devastating tornado that hit Rolling Fork, Mississippi, and meteorologists fear this Friday will be one of the worst days, with much more to come. The National Weather Service said 16.8 million people live in the highest risk zone, and more than 66 million people overall should be on alert Friday.

    “It’s pretty darn clear that somebody is going to take it on the nose on Friday,” said Northern Illinois meteorology professor and tornado expert and chaser Victor Gensini. “It’s just a matter of where and exactly when.”

    The weather service is cautioning a large area of the country – including parts of Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, West Virginia, Georgia and Kansas – to be alert for intense thunderstorms, tornadoes and other damaging winds. Big cities in the highest danger area include Memphis, St. Louis, Des Moines and Little Rock.

    Gensini fears Friday’s onslaught will be deadly.

    The storms are expected to start Friday afternoon and go overnight, which is particularly dangerous because people can’t see them coming and often won’t seek shelter, weather service Storm Prediction Center warning coordination meteorologist Matt Elliott said Wednesday.

    “The storms will be moving very quickly,” Elliott said. “So you won’t have a lot of time to react to warnings as well. So now’s the time to start preparing.”

    Though all the ingredients are there for dangerous storms, it’s possible they may not combine precisely enough to pose the threat that meteorologists are warning about, Elliott and others said.

    Another batch of severe storms, powered by a “firehose” of unstable waves in the atmosphere that keep flowing from the cold west and combine with moist air from the east, could hit next Tuesday and the next few days after that, said Walker Ashley, another meteorology professor at Northern Illinois and Gensini’s storm-chasing partner.

    “You could see these things coming days in advance,” Ashley said. They will be “continual punches, one, two, three, four.”

    The weather service is already forecasting another batch of intense storms next Tuesday in the same general area as Friday with fairly high confidence, Elliott said.

    At least the first 10 days of April will be rough, said Accuweather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham.

    The current persistent pattern of storm ingredients reminds Gensini of the April 2011 tornado onslaught that killed 363 people in six states, hitting Alabama hardest. That was one of the largest, deadliest and most destructive tornado outbreaks in American history, the weather service said.

    Even before Friday, “it’s been the most active we’ve seen in several years” starting around last November, with a large number of winter storms through this year, Elliott said. The deadly storms that hit Rolling Fork were part of that pattern.

    Buckingham and the other meteorologists said current conditions come along only once every few years to create the potential for a train of supercells, which spawn the worst of the tornadoes and damaging hail.

    Central to this is a fast-moving rollercoaster-like jet stream, the shifting river of air that moves weather systems, such as storms, from west to east. On the west side of the jet stream is extreme cold air and to the east, parked off Florida and Caribbean, is a very warm and dry high-pressure system.

    “When you kind of combine the two it kind makes those hairs on the back of your neck stand up,” Buckingham said. “The ingredients are here. They’re primed towards the extreme end of things.”

    Add to that the Gulf of Mexico, which provides moisture heat and energy for storms, is roughly 2 to 5 degrees (1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius) warmer than average or more, meteorologists said — “on fire,” as Ashley put it.

    “The additional warmth and humidity really get these thunderstorms firing up,” Buckingham said.

    The worst weather will be “underneath the clashing” of hot and cold air, a battleground of sort, Gensini said. Friday’s lunchtime forecast at Storm Lake, Iowa, is around 67 degrees (19 degrees Celsius) but just 140 miles (225 kilometers) to the northwest, Brookings, South Dakota is forecast to be barely above freezing.

    “The greater the temperature gradient, the stronger the storm systems are,” Gensini said.

    The winds twirling at opposite directions on the west and east of the jet stream battleground add to the problem, the meteorologists said.

    Ashley said current conditions are mostly random weather variability, though he said the hotter Gulf of Mexico and human-caused climate change may have made a small contribution.

    “These events have always occurred,” Ashley said. “The question is are we turning the knob a little bit by contributing more moisture, more heat, more instability?”

    ___ Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment ___ Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears ___ Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Churches provide solace in tornado-ravaged Mississippi Delta

    Churches provide solace in tornado-ravaged Mississippi Delta

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    ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — As a deadly tornado tore through the lower Mississippi Delta, the Rev. Mary Stewart clung to a door in the hallway of her Rolling Fork home, shielding herself from the branches and chunks of debris that came flying through her shattered windows.

    Friday’s storm flattened entire town blocks, but the Rolling Fork Methodist Church withstood the high winds. And so the first Sunday after the twister commenced just like any other Sunday — with congregants reaffirming their faith and finding solace together.

    “We are a very religious community,” said Laura Allmon, a fourth-generation congregant. “It just means a lot for us to be able to get together and pray and be thankful for what we have.”

    At least 25 people were killed and dozens were injured late Friday in Mississippi as the storm ripped through one of the poorest regions in the country, carving out a swath of destruction. Elsewhere, a man was killed in neighboring Alabama after his trailer home flipped over several times.

    Their homes rendered unlivable, many Rolling Fork residents flocked Sunday to the network of churches dotting the landscape. It is a close-knit farming community bound by intergenerational ties of family and faith that form the social fabric of this rural Southern town of about 2,000.

    Wayne Williams, 55, teaches construction skills at a vocational center. He was working with others Sunday to clean up some relatively minor damage at the building. Across the street, a large metal building that had been a community center was ripped apart by the tornado.

    “It’s going to be a long road to recovery, to rebuild and get over all the devastation,” Williams said of his community. “With God in the mix, we will recover.”

    For Rolling Fork, a rebuilding process now awaits unlike any the town has faced before. But Friday’s tornado wasn’t the first time residents have had their lives upended by the elements. In 2019, the worst flooding since 1973 drove some from their homes.

    Religion is a central way residents of the Delta cope with an unpredictable climate and entrenched poverty.

    “So many people here know patience from farm work,” Stewart said. “With their dependence on the rain for their crops — their livelihood — and having to leave it in God’s hands … it’s a wonderful reaffirmation that God is in control.”

    Founded nearly 135 years ago, the Rolling Fork Methodist Church has long been a source of support and resilience in hard times, its members said.

    Since the church building was without power Sunday morning, roughly two dozen worshipers gathered on its historic steps and bowed their heads while Stewart delivered a short sermon.

    “We’re grateful, Lord, that you brought us through this storm,” she said, standing in sunshine beneath a clear blue sky. “We have a lot to do and a lot of rebuilding, and there are people that we’ve lost in our town. … We pray for their families.”

    Elsewhere, President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration for Mississippi early Sunday, making federal funding available to the hardest hit areas.

    Based on early data, the tornado received a preliminary EF-4 rating, with top wind gusts between 166 mph and 200 mph (265 kph and 320 kph), according to the National Weather Service office in Jackson. Officials said the twister was on the ground for more than an hour.

    Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued a state of emergency and vowed to help rebuild as he viewed the damage in the region, which boasts wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields and catfish farming ponds. He spoke with Biden, who also held a call with the state’s congressional delegation.

    More than a half-dozen shelters were opened in Mississippi to house displaced residents.

    Just a few blocks down the road from the Rolling Fork Methodist Church, pastor Britt Williamson spoke from the pulpit at First Baptist Church, addressing rows of weary congregants. During the service, people hugged, shook hands and wiped away tears.

    “The Delta is a hard soul for the gospel,” Williamson said. “Through the calamity of what happened, God has brought a plow bigger than any of these farmers could have.”

    He said faith gives people something to hold onto during life’s challenges.

    “We don’t want to help people just to give them a place to live. We don’t want to feed them for a day,” he said. “We want to give them an eternal home.”

    Marlon Nicholas, a congregant of the church, said his family’s attendance at a local high school prom Friday night meant they stayed safe even as their home was destroyed. He said other relatives also lost their homes but escaped without serious injuries.

    “Miracles,” he said.

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  • Mississippi tornado victims wonder, ‘How can we rebuild?’

    Mississippi tornado victims wonder, ‘How can we rebuild?’

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    ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — The tornado that collapsed the roof and two walls of Jermaine Wells’ Mississippi home also hurled a massive tractor tire that landed near him in the living room as his wife huddled in the laundry room.

    The couple survived the Friday night storm, but as they picked through the ruins of their one-story home Monday in Rolling Fork, he said they’re not sure how they’re going to pay for daily expenses, let alone long-term recovery.

    Wells, 50, drives a backhoe for a road department in another county, and he said he doesn’t get paid if he doesn’t work. His wife, a cashier at a local store, gathered loose coins as he looked for clothing in the rubble.

    “I can’t even get to work. I don’t have no vehicle, no nothing,” Wells said. “How can we rebuild something that we don’t have nothing to build our foundation with?”

    The disaster makes life even more difficult in this economically struggling area. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the U.S., and the majority-Black Delta has long been one of the poorest parts of Mississippi — a place where many people work paycheck to paycheck, often in jobs connected to agriculture.

    Two of the counties walloped by the tornado, Sharkey and Humphreys, are among the most sparsely populated in the state, with only a few thousand residents in communities scattered across wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields. Sharkey’s poverty rate is 35%, and Humphreys’ is 33%, compared with about 19% for Mississippi and less than 12% for the entire United States.

    People in poverty are vulnerable after disasters not only because they lack financial resources but also because they often don’t have friends or family who can afford to provide long-term shelter, said the Rev. Starsky Wilson, president and CEO of Children’s Defense Fund, a national group that advocates policies to help low-income families.

    “We have to make sure people with power — policymakers — pay attention to and keep their attention on people that are often unseen because they are poor, because they are Black, because they are rural,” Wilson told The Associated Press on Monday.

    On Monday, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency revised the state death toll from the tornado to 21, down from 25. The agency said the new number is based on deaths confirmed by coroners. MEMA spokeswoman Allie Jasper said the agency does not know of any people still reported missing. One person was killed in Alabama.

    Preliminary assessments show 313 structures in Mississippi were destroyed and more than 1,000 were affected in some way, the Federal Emergency Management Agency told emergency managers Monday.

    The tornado destroyed many homes and businesses in Rolling Fork and the nearby town of Silver City, leaving mounds of lumber, bricks and twisted metal. The local housing stock was already tight, and some who lost their homes said they will live with friends or relatives. Mississippi opened more than a half-dozen shelters to temporarily house people displaced by the tornado.

    The tornado obliterated the modest one-story home that Kimberly Berry shared with her two daughters in the Delta flatlands about 15 miles (24 kilometers) outside Rolling Fork. It left only the foundation and random belongings — a toppled refrigerator, a dresser and matching nightstand, a bag of Christmas decorations, some clothing.

    During the storm, Berry and her 12-year-old daughter prayed inside a nearby church that was barely damaged, while her 25-year-old daughter survived in Rolling Fork. Berry shook her head as she looked at the remains of their material possessions. She said she’s grateful she and her children are still alive.

    “I can get all this back. It’s nothing,” said Berry, 46, who works as a supervisor at a catfish growing and processing operation. “I’m not going to get depressed about it.”

    She spent the weekend with friends and family sorting through salvageable items. Her sister, Dianna Berry, said her own home a few miles away was undamaged. She works at a deer camp, and she said her boss has offered to let Kimberly Berry and her daughters live there for as long as they need.

    President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration for Mississippi on Sunday, making federal funding available to hardest-hit areas. But Craig Fugate, who headed FEMA when Barack Obama was president, said it’s important to remember that the agency will not pay for all expenses after a disaster.

    “In those communities where people don’t have insurance and the homes were destroyed, their ability to do recovery will be tested,” Fugate said.

    FEMA provides temporary housing and helps with some uninsured losses, but he said the agency is not designed to replace everything if homes are uninsured or underinsured. Long-term recovery will be heavily dependent on money from Housing and Urban Development.

    “That money won’t flow fast,” he said.

    In recent years, FEMA has moved to reduce barriers so that “all people, including those from vulnerable and underserved communities, are better able to access our assistance,” said FEMA spokesperson Jeremy Edwards. He cited agency changes expanding the types of documents survivors can provide to verify they lived in or own a particular home.

    Marcus T. Coleman Jr., who heads the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships with the Department of Homeland Security, said after visiting Rolling Fork he’s concerned about both the mental health and financial challenges for people struggling in the tornado’s aftermath. “Disasters often exacerbate preexisting inequities,” said Coleman.

    Denise Durel heads United Way of Southwest Louisiana, where residents are still recovering from hurricanes Laura and Delta that struck in 2020. The organization has been helping people rebuild damaged homes, and some were uninsured or had too little coverage.

    “Just drive through town,” she said. “Blue tarps are still there. The houses are in worse shape.”

    Louisiana has finally received a large infusion of federal money to help those still struggling from the two 2020 hurricanes. Durel said if people didn’t register with FEMA soon after the storms, they can’t qualify for this new money. She said the application process is difficult and requires internet access, but many families were focused on gutting their homes and might not have known about registration or understood its importance.

    “The people in Mississippi have to understand loud and clear: Somehow you have to find a way to get those people registered with FEMA,” Durel said.

    __

    This story has been updated to correct the title for Marcus T. Coleman Jr. He works for the Department of Homeland Security.

    ___

    Rebecca Santana reported from Washington, and Associated Press/Report For America reporter Michael Goldberg contributed from Rolling Fork.

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  • Mississippi tornado recovery tough for low-income residents

    Mississippi tornado recovery tough for low-income residents

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    ROLLING FORK, Miss. — A massive tornado obliterated the modest one-story home that Kimberly Berry shared with her two daughters in the Mississippi Delta flatlands, leaving only a foundation and some random belongings — a toppled refrigerator, a dresser and matching nightstand, a bag of Christmas decorations, some clothing.

    During the storm Friday, Berry and her 12-year-old daughter huddled and prayed at a nearby church that was barely damaged, while her 25-year-old daughter survived in the hard-hit town of Rolling Fork, some 15 miles (24 kilometers) away.

    Berry shook her head as she looked at the remains of their material possessions. She said she’s grateful she and her children are still alive.

    “I can get all this back. It’s nothing,” said Berry, 46, who works as a supervisor at a catfish growing and processing operation. “I’m not going to get depressed about it.”

    Like many people in this economically struggling area, she faces an uncertain future. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the U.S., and the majority-Black Delta has long been one of the poorest parts of Mississippi — a place where many people work paycheck to paycheck in jobs tied to agriculture.

    Two of the counties walloped by the tornado, Sharkey and Issaquena, are the most sparsely populated in the state, with only a few thousand residents in communities scattered across wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields.

    Sharkey’s poverty rate is 35%, and Issaquena’s is 44%, compared to about 19% for Mississippi and under 12% for the entire United States.

    “It’s going to be a long road to recovery, trying to rebuild and get over the devastation,” Wayne Williams, who teaches construction skills at a vocational education center in Rolling Fork, said Sunday as people across town hammered blue tarps onto damaged roofs and used chainsaws to cut fallen trees.

    The tornado killed 25 and injured dozens in Mississippi. It destroyed many homes and businesses in Rolling Fork and the nearby town of Silver City, leaving mounds of lumber, bricks and twisted metal.

    The local housing stock was already tight, and some who lost their homes said they will live with friends of relatives. Mississippi opened more than a half-dozen shelters to temporarily house people displaced by the tornado.

    President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration for Mississippi early Sunday, making federal funding available to hardest-hit areas.

    Berry spent the weekend with friends and family sorting through salvageable items at her destroyed home near a two-lane highway that traverses farm fields. She said she walked to the church before the tornado because her sister called her Friday night and frantically said TV weather forecasters had warned a potentially deadly storm was headed her way. Berry said as the storm rumbled and howled overhead, she tried to ignore the noise.

    “That’s the only thing that was stuck in my head was just to pray, pray and cry out to God,” she said Saturday. “I didn’t hear nothing but my own self praying and God answering my prayer. I mean, I can get another house, another furniture. But literally saving my life — I’m thankful.”

    Her sister, Dianna Berry, said her own home a few miles away was undamaged. She works at a deer camp, and she said her boss has offered to let Kimberly Berry and her daughters live there for as long as they need.

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  • Churches provide solace in tornado-ravaged Mississippi Delta

    Churches provide solace in tornado-ravaged Mississippi Delta

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    ROLLING FORK, Miss. — As a deadly tornado tore through the lower Mississippi Delta, the Rev. Mary Stewart clung to a door in the hallway of her Rolling Fork home, shielding herself from the branches and chunks of debris that came flying through her shattered windows.

    Friday’s storm flattened entire town blocks, but the Rolling Fork Methodist Church withstood the high winds. And so the first Sunday after the twister would commence just like any other Sunday — with congregants reaffirming their faith and finding solace together.

    “We are a very religious community,” said Laura Allmon, a fourth-generation congregant. “It just means a lot for us to be able to get together and pray and be thankful for what we have.”

    At least 26 people were killed and dozens of others were injured late Friday in Mississippi as the storm ripped through one of the poorest regions in the country, leaving a swath of destruction in its wake.

    With their homes unlivable, many Rolling Fork residents flocked Sunday to the network of churches dotting their rural Southern town of about 2,000, where agriculture and faith shape local life.

    Founded nearly 135 years ago, the Rolling Fork Methodist Church has long been a source of support and resilience in hard times, its members said.

    “So many people here know patience from farm work,” Stewart said. “With their dependence on the rain for their crops — their livelihood — and having to leave it in God’s hands … it’s a wonderful reaffirmation that God is in control.”

    Since the church building was without power Sunday morning, roughly two dozen worshipers gathered on its historic steps and bowed their heads while Stewart delivered a short sermon.

    “We’re grateful, Lord, that you brought us through this storm,” she said, standing in the sunshine beneath a clear blue sky. “We have a lot to do and a lot of rebuilding, and there are people that we’ve lost in our town. … We pray for their families.”

    Elsewhere, President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration for Mississippi early Sunday, making federal funding available to the hardest hit areas.

    Based on early data, the tornado received a preliminary EF-4 rating, with top wind gusts between 166 mph and 200 mph (265 kph and 320 kph), according to the National Weather Service office in Jackson. Officials said the twister was on the ground for more than an hour.

    Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued a state of emergency and vowed to help rebuild as he viewed the damage in the region, which boasts wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields and catfish farming ponds. He spoke with Biden, who also held a call with the state’s congressional delegation.

    More than a half-dozen shelters were opened in Mississippi to house displaced residents.

    Just a few blocks down the road from the Rolling Fork Methodist Church, pastor Britt Williamson spoke from the pulpit at First Baptist Church, addressing rows of weary congregants. During the service, attendees hugged, shook hands and wiped away tears.

    “The Delta is a hard soul for the gospel,” Williamson said. “Through the calamity of what happened, God has brought a plow bigger than any of these farmers could have.”

    He said faith gives people something to hold onto during life’s challenges.

    “We don’t want to help people just to give them a place to live. We don’t want to feed them for a day,” he said. “We want to give them an eternal home.”

    Marlon Nicholas, a congregant of the church, said his family’s attendance at a local high school prom Friday night meant they stayed safe even as their home was destroyed. He said other relatives also lost their homes but escaped without serious injuries.

    “Miracles,” he said.

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  • Crews continue to sift through Deep South tornado wreckage

    Crews continue to sift through Deep South tornado wreckage

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    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 U.S.

    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 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 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 166 mph and 200 mph (265 kph and 320 kph), according to the service. The Jackson office cautioned it was still gathering information on the tornado.

    President Joe Biden promised federal help to Mississippi and Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was scheduled to visit Sunday to evaluate the destruction.

    The Friday night tornado devastated a swath 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,” said Rodney Porter, who lives 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Rolling Fork. When the storm hit Friday night, he immediately drove there to assist in any way he could. Porter arrived to find “total devastation” and said he smelled natural gas and heard people screaming for help in the dark.

    “Houses are gone, houses stacked on top of houses with vehicles on top of that,” he said.

    Annette Body drove to the hard-hit town of Silver City from nearby Belozi to survey the damage. She said she was feeling “blessed” because her own home was not destroyed, but other people she knows lost everything.

    “Cried last night, cried this morning,” she said, looking around at flattened homes. “They said you need to take cover, but it happened so fast a lot of people didn’t even get a chance to take cover.”

    Storm survivors walked around Saturday, many dazed and in shock, as they broke through thickly clustered debris and fallen trees with chain saws, searching for survivors. Power lines were pinned under decades-old oaks, their roots torn from the ground.

    Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued a state of emergency and vowed to help rebuild as he viewed the damage in a region speckled with wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields and catfish farming ponds. He spoke with Biden, who also held a call with the state’s congressional delegation.

    More than a half-dozen shelters were opened in Mississippi to house those who have been displaced.

    Preliminary information based on estimates from storm reports and radar data indicate the tornado was on the ground for more than an hour and traversed at least 170 miles (274 kilometers), said Lance Perrilloux, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Jackson, Mississippi, office.

    “That’s rare — very, very rare,” he said, attributing the long path to widespread atmospheric instability.

    Perrilloux said preliminary findings showed the tornado began its path of destruction just southwest of Rolling Fork before continuing northeast toward the rural communities of Midnight and Silver City and onward toward Tchula, Black Hawk and Winona.

    The supercell that produced the deadly twister also appeared to produce tornadoes causing damage in northwest and north-central Alabama, said Brian Squitieri, a severe storms forecaster with the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Emily Wagster Pettus in Rolling Fork, Mississippi; Michael Goldberg in Silver City, Mississippi; and Jim Salter in O’Fallon, Missouri, contributed to this report.

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  • After tornado, harrowing tales of survival in Mississippi

    After tornado, harrowing tales of survival in Mississippi

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    SILVER CITY, Miss. — Nothing remained of William Barnes’ home in the tiny western Mississippi town of Silver City after a killer tornado tore it off its foundations. He stood in disbelief Saturday as he surveyed the lot where he’d lived for 20 years, twisted debris of cinder blocks and mangled wood siding scattered across where his home once stood.

    “We lost everything but got out alive,” he said, holding his young granddaughter in his arms.

    Stories were similar throughout the town of just over 200 people, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of the state capital of Jackson. Devastating accounts of utter destruction, incredible survival and tragic deaths followed Friday’s twister that killed at least 25 in Mississippi and one in Alabama as it surged nearly 170 miles (274 kilometers) across the Deep South.

    Residents sat in folding chairs outside the mud-splattered ruins of beloved family homes as people came by in all-terrain vehicles and golf carts packed with bottles of water to distribute. A line of cars was parked on the road from first responders and family who had driven in to help with clean up and rescue efforts.

    Remnants of the storm and reminders of its ferocity were everywhere.

    A child’s Shrek doll lay face down in the dirt next to a pile of broken plywood and branches, feet from a busted-up refrigerator with its back torn clean off. Limbs from several fallen trees blocked a school bus. Outside the wall of what used to be a house, a bike lay upside down in another pile of debris.

    Lakeisha Clincy, Yaclyn James and Shaquetin Burnett had just returned to their Silver City home from an evening out in the nearby town of Belzoni when the tornado struck. They parked in their driveway and opened the car doors, but it was too late.

    “I saw houses flying everywhere,” Burnett said. “The house on the corner was spinning.”

    They closed the car doors and waited.

    “It only lasted about three minutes, but it was the longest three minutes I’ve ever had,” Clincy said. “This I will never forget.”

    They exited the car to find their house destroyed. Officials later transported them by bus to a hotel, where they fell asleep sometime after 4 a.m. They didn’t know where they would sleep Saturday night.

    Christin George said her parents and grandmother narrowly escaped when the tornado blew out the windows and ripped off part of the roof of their home.

    She said her parents huddled behind a door that hadn’t been hung yet and threw a blanket over her grandmother to shield themselves from the glass that “shot down the hallway and peppered everybody.”

    “Everything else around them is just gone,” she said, at times clutching her hand to her chest. “They were lucky. That’s all there is to it.”

    Christine Chinn, who’s lived in Silver City her whole life, sought refuge with her husband and son in the hallway, covering themselves with a blanket as they desperately sought to protect themselves. After the storm, the roof was gone on the home where she’s lived for 17 years and cars were upended in her yard.

    “It just got calm and all of sudden everything just — like a big old train or something coming through,” she said, adding that much of her belongings weren’t salvageable.

    She said she was very scared and had never experienced anything like it.

    That same fear gripped residents of Rolling Fork, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away, as the twister flatted the town of just under 2,000 people.

    Derrick Brady Jr., 9, said he tried to cover his 7-year-old sister Kylie Carter with his body as the tornado moved over their home. He had to dive in the bathtub as his mom pushed herself up against the bathroom door, trying to keep it closed. He described the sensation of feeling both pushed and pulled by the twister’s force.

    “I was scared, but I was brave that time,” he said. “We had to say our own prayers in our heads.”

    Wanda Barfield, grandmother of Derrick and Kylie, said she was running around the devastated town Friday night and Saturday trying to account for loved ones. After the storm hit, she kept calling family members’ cell phones, but no one answered. She found her sister-in-law dead amid the wreckage, she said.

    She said her family is doing the best they can to survive.

    “Our life is more important than anything else. You can get a job, money, car, clothes, shoes — you can get all that,” she said. “For me, and for my house, we’re going to serve the Lord.”

    James Hancock was helping with search and rescue efforts in Rolling Fork late Friday as the storm tore through town.

    He was part of a crew who forced open a store that community members started using to care for injured people. It took two hours for ambulances to maneuver through debris-filled streets to get to the store to start tending to them, he said. As he moved from the ruins of one home to the next, he said he could hear people crying out in the dark.

    “You could just hear people needing help, and it was just devastating,” he said.

    ___

    Rush contributed from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press reporters Emily Wagster Pettus and Leah Willingham contributed from Rolling Fork, Mississippi and Charleston, West Virginia.

    ___

    Michael Goldberg and Claire Rush are corps members for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Tornadoes deadliest in Mississippi since 2011

    Tornadoes deadliest in Mississippi since 2011

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    With at least 25 people dead in Mississippi, tornadoes that ravaged parts of the Deep South overnight were the deadliest in the state in more than a decade, according to National Weather Service records.

    By comparison, 31 people died in Mississippi in April 2011 during tornadoes that tore through several states, mostly in the southeastern U.S., weather service meteorologist Chris Outler said Saturday. Alabama was hit hardest during that so-called “super outbreak” of hundreds of twisters that killed more than 320 people and caused an estimated $12 billion in damage.

    Just a month later, another deadly twister ripped through Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people. Outler, in Las Vegas, called 2011 “the headline year for tornadoes for the last 20 years or so.”

    The sheriff’s office in Morgan County, Alabama, reported one storm-related death on Saturday, bringing the overall total during overnight storms to at least 26.

    Records show that 12 people died in Mississippi during Easter storms in April 2020, and 10 died in the state during a tornado event in April 2014.

    National Weather Service records tally these deadly U.S. tornado events since 2012. Many were covered by The Associated Press:

    2022: 23 killed in 14 deadly tornado events, including seven killed on March 5 in and around Winterset, Iowa.

    2021: 103 killed in nine deadly tornado events, including a Dec. 10 outbreak in Kentucky and Illinois that authorities said left at least 88 people dead.

    2020: 76 killed in 24 deadly tornado events, including 12 dead in Mississippi during Easter storms that swept from Texas to the Carolinas, killing more than 30 people.

    2019: 41 killed in 12 deadly tornado events, including 23 people in a March 3 storm in and around rural Beauregard, Alabama.

    2018: 10 killed in 9 deadly tornado events, including two people on Nov. 2 in Baltimore County, Maryland.

    2017: 35 killed in 14 deadly tornado events. Authorities in Georgia reported that at least 20 people died during twisters and thunderstorms in January in the Southeast. In Mississippi, four people died during a Jan. 21 tornado, the weather service said.

    2016: 18 killed in 10 deadly tornado events, including three in a Feb. 24 storm in Virginia and three in a Nov. 30 storm in Alabama.

    2015: 36 killed in 13 deadly tornado events, including storms in December that left 10 dead in the Dallas area and nine dead in Mississippi.

    2014: 47 killed in 14 deadly tornado events, including 10 dead in Mississippi during a swarm of tornadoes in late April 2014 that also killed 16 people in Arkansas.

    2013: 55 killed in 14 deadly tornado events. Authorities reported at least 51 died in a May 20 twister that tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, Oklahoma.

    2012: 68 killed in 22 deadly tornado events, including 11 during a March 2 storm that struck the Indiana towns of Henryville and Marysville.

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  • County coroner tells ABC News that at least 7 people have been killed in Mississippi tornado

    County coroner tells ABC News that at least 7 people have been killed in Mississippi tornado

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    County coroner tells ABC News that at least 7 people have been killed in Mississippi tornado

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  • Storms roll east after slamming South; 10 deaths reported

    Storms roll east after slamming South; 10 deaths reported

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    A large storm system took aim at the Northeast on Friday, threatening heavy snow and coastal flooding after heavy winds and possible tornadoes damaged homes and buildings, left thousands without power and caused 10 deaths in a wide swath of the South and Midwest.

    Three people were killed by falling trees in Alabama as severe weather swept through the state. In Mississippi, a woman died inside her SUV after a rotted tree branch struck her vehicle, and in Arkansas a man drowned after he drove into high floodwaters. News outlets reported two people died in Tennessee when trees fell on them.

    Three weather-related deaths also were reported in Kentucky in three different counties as storms with straight-line winds moved through the state. Gov. Andy Beshear had declared a state of emergency before the storm and on Friday evening the mayor of Louisville, Craig Greenberg, followed suit because of the severe storms, high winds, widespread damage and danger to lives and property.

    “I encourage everyone in our community to exercise extreme caution this evening, and in the coming days – do not drive through standing water, do not approach downed power lines, or do anything that would put the lives of anyone at risk,” Greenberg said in a Facebook post.

    The National Weather Service in Louisville called the storm Friday “powerful and historic” with peak wind gusts between 60-80 mph (96-128 kph).

    More than a million utility customers in Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan were without power Friday evening, according to poweroutage.us.

    The storm barreled Friday afternoon into the Detroit area, quickly covering streets and roads beneath a layer of snow. The weather service said some areas could see blizzard conditions with snowfall approaching 3 inches (8 centimeters) per hour. The Detroit Metropolitan Airport closed Friday evening because of rapidly deteriorating weather conditions.

    Detroit-based DTE Energy reported more than 130,000 customers lost power Friday evening. It was the latest slap after ice storms last week left more than 600,000 homes and businesses without power.

    The National Weather Service reported poor road conditions and numerous vehicle crashes across much of northwest Indiana because of heavy snowfall Friday afternoon.

    The storm system was turning toward New England, where a mix of snow, sleet and rain was expected to start Friday night and last into Saturday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a winter storm warning.

    There’s a chance of coastal flooding in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and the storm could bring as much as 18 inches (45 centimeters) of snow to parts of New Hampshire and Maine. The storm will also bring strong winds that could cause power outages.

    Airport officials in Portland, Maine, canceled several flights for Saturday ahead of the weather and some libraries and businesses in the region announced weekend closures. Still, with warmer weather expected to return by the end of the weekend, most New Englanders were taking the storm in stride.

    It wasn’t the same story in California, where the weather system slammed the state earlier in the week with as much as 10 feet (3 meters) of snow. Some residents in mountains east of Los Angeles will likely remain stranded in their homes for at least another week after the snowfall proved too much to handle for most plows.

    Many residents of Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas emerged Friday to find their homes and businesses damaged and trees toppled by the reported tornadoes. Tens of thousands were without power and some were also without water.

    In Alabama, a 70-year-old man sitting in his truck in Talledega County was killed when a tree fell onto his vehicle. A 43-year-old man in Lauderdale County and a man in Huntsville also were killed by falling trees Friday, local authorities said.

    In Texas, winds brought down trees, ripped the roof off a grocery store in Little Elm, north of Dallas, and overturned four 18-wheelers along. Minor injuries were reported, police said.

    Winds of nearly 80 mph (130 kph) were recorded near the Fort Worth suburb of Blue Mound. The roof of an apartment building in the suburb of Hurst was blown away, resident Michael Roberts told KDFW-TV.

    “The whole building started shaking. … The whole ceiling is gone,” Roberts said. “It got really crazy.”

    Heavy rain was also reported in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, causing flooding in both states.

    In southwest Arkansas, Betty Andrews told KSLA-TV that she and her husband took shelter in the bathroom of their mobile home while a tornado moved through.

    “It was very scary. I opened the front door to look out and saw it coming. I grabbed Kevin and went and got into the bathtub,” Andrews said. “We hunkered down, and I said some prayers until it passed.”

    They were OK but the home sustained major damage and the couple was temporarily trapped in the bathroom until a neighbor cleared debris from outside the door.

    Elsewhere in the Midwest, Minnesota and Wisconsin expected areas of freezing fog with less than a quarter mile of visibility into the weekend, the weather service said. In North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, highways could get up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow and 45 mph (72 kph) wind gusts on Sunday and Monday.

    ___

    Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Corey Williams in Detroit; Mark Pratt in Boston; Chevel Johnson in New Orleans; Trisha Ahmed in St. Paul, Minnesota; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington.

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  • From California to NY, storms ravage US from coast-to-coast

    From California to NY, storms ravage US from coast-to-coast

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    OKLAHOMA CITY — Parts of the Northeast are gearing up for what could be very heavy snow early Tuesday, after tornadoes and other powerful winds swept through parts of the Southern Plains, killing at least one person in Oklahoma, and some Michigan residents faced a sixth consecutive day without power following last week’s ice storm.

    In California, the National Weather Service said winter storms will continue moving into the state through Wednesday after residents got a brief break from severe weather Sunday.

    A look at the weather threats around the country:

    TORNADO FORECAST, CLEANUP

    A storm system produced at least four tornadoes as it moved across central and northeastern Illinois on Monday, including two that formed in suburbs west of Chicago, authorities said. Initial reports suggested damage there was limited to fallen trees or shingles torn from buildings, said Rafal Ogorek, a meteorologist in the Chicago office of the National Weather Service.

    At least one person was killed and three others injured after a tornado touched down Sunday night in far western Oklahoma near the town of Cheyenne, where 20 homes were damaged and four others destroyed, Roger Mills County Emergency Manager Levi Blackketter reported.

    Statewide, Oklahoma officials received reports of 55 people who suffered weather-related injuries from area hospitals.

    Officials in Norman, Oklahoma, confirmed 12 weather-related injuries after tornadoes and wind gusts as high as 90 mph (145 kph) were reported in the state Sunday night. The winds toppled trees and power lines, closed roads and damaged homes and businesses around Norman and Shawnee.

    Classes were canceled Monday at two damaged elementary schools, said Norman Police Chief Kevin Foster.

    Frances Tabler, of Norman, told KOCO-TV that she suffered a small cut on her head when a storm hit her home, tearing off much of its roof and sending debris flying. She said it was a miracle her children weren’t hurt, although her daughter was trapped for awhile in a bedroom.

    “It was just like a blizzard in the house with all the debris flying,” Tabler told KOCO. “I was screaming for my kids.”

    The line of quick-moving thunderstorms that produced a swath of damaging wind gusts likely qualified as a derecho, although that’s not an official designation, said Nolan Meister, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

    Meister said a wind gust of 114 mph (183 kph) was recorded in Texas, with gusts between 70 mph (113 kph) and 90 mph (145 kph) in central Oklahoma.

    More than 76,000 customers lost power in Oklahoma, but most had it restored by Monday morning, Oklahoma’s Office of Emergency Management reported.

    There were reports of nine tornadoes in Kansas, Oklahoma and northwestern Texas, weather officials said. One tornado near Liberal, Kansas, damaged more than a dozen homes and caused minor injuries to one person, KSNW-TV reported.

    BLIZZARD CONDITIONS IN WESTERN U.S.

    Blizzard warnings went into effect Monday in the Sierra Nevada range as more rounds of rain and snow moved into California and Nevada.

    An avalanche warning was issued for the backcountry around Lake Tahoe, where up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) of snow was expected over the next two days in the upper elevations and gale-force winds could create waves up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) high on the lake, the National Weather Service in Reno said Monday. State offices across northern Nevada and the Nevada Legislature in Carson City were shut down because of the severe weather.

    The new series of storms arrived even as parts of California were still digging out from last week’s powerful storm, which added to a massive snowpack left by a siege of “atmospheric rivers” in December and January.

    A 90-mile (145-km) stretch of U.S. 395 in California’s eastern Sierra was shut down Monday evening due to whiteout conditions, state transportation officials said. Yosemite National Park announced it would be closed until midweek, and numerous roads were closed in Sequoia National Park. Trans-Sierra highways were subject to closures and chain requirements.

    Los Angeles County declared a cold weather alert for valley and mountain areas north of LA as overnight temperatures were expected to plunge below freezing for much of the week. Shelters were opened for residents who don’t have access to warm spaces.

    East of Los Angeles, roads to San Bernardino Mountain resort communities around Big Bear Lake were closed after snow began falling again. The storm stranded more than 600 students at science camps in the Big Bear area over the weekend. The students from Irvine in Orange County were expected home Friday but officials decided it was safer to keep them in the mountains until the roads could be cleared. The California Highway Patrol began escorting out buses carrying the kids on Monday, the Irvine Unified School District said.

    The northbound side of Interstate 5, the West Coast’s major north-south highway, was shut down by wintry conditions and disabled vehicles about 90 miles (145 km) south of the Oregon line. Interstate 80, the major route between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe and Reno was closed due to blizzard conditions.

    STORMS IN MICHIGAN AND NORTHEAST

    A winter storm warning covered parts of the Northeast, including Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island, with heavy snow forecast through Tuesday afternoon.

    Boston could get 5 inches (13 cm) and a messy Tuesday morning commute, according to the weather service. As much as 10 inches (25 cm) could fall in western Massachusetts, northwest Connecticut and southern Vermont.

    In Michigan, still reeling from last week’s ice storm and high winds, about 150,000 customers were without power Monday night, according to PowerOutage.us. That was down from more than 800,000 at one point last week. Crews continued their work to restore all electricity.

    Leah Thomas, whose home north of Detroit lost power Wednesday night, finally got her power back Sunday afternoon — only to have it go out again at midday Monday.

    “It’s very frustrating, very frustrating,” she said. “I’m just going to hope and cross my fingers that it comes back on here soon.”

    While not expecting a blockbuster storm by regional standards, southern New England braced for what could be the most significant snowfall of what has so far been a mild winter.

    ___

    Antczak reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers from across the country contributed to this report.

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  • EXPLAINER: Windstorm was likely a derecho. What is that?

    EXPLAINER: Windstorm was likely a derecho. What is that?

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    A long line of quick-moving thunderstorms that produced a swath of damaging wind gusts across northern Texas and Oklahoma late Sunday likely qualified the event as a derecho, although that’s not an official designation, said Nolan Meister, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

    “Last night we had a prolific squall line come through,” Meister said, noting that a wind gust as high as 114 mph was recorded in Texas, with gusts between 70 and 90 mph in central Oklahoma.

    Some information on derechos:

    WHAT IS A DERECHO?

    A derecho is often described as an inland hurricane because of the strength of its winds.

    According to the National Weather Service, the term comes from the Spanish word “derecho” to mean “direct” or “straight ahead” and was first used in 1888 by a chemist and professor of physical sciences.

    The storm has no eye, and its powerful winds come across in a line. That can cause widespread overall damage and smaller pockets of severe damage.

    Ryan Maue, a private meteorologist in the Atlanta area and a former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said a derecho can develop from a series of separate storms, usually carrying hail and strong winds, that combine and build into a larger bowing complex.

    The term “bow” describes how it appears on radar.

    When that happens, the system “can subsist on its own, it will continually fuel itself,” Maue said. “It can cause tremendous damage with straight-line winds.”

    HOW OFTEN DO THEY OCCUR?

    Derechos are relatively rare events, and in the U.S. are more likely to occur in the Corn Belt, an area that ranges from Minnesota and Iowa south and eastward toward the Ohio Valley, according to the National Weather Service.

    They’re more likely to occur from May through August, particularly during periods of high heat — making the December derecho so uncommon.

    “The climatology of derechos depends on the location and season, but if you consider the entire US (east of the Rockies), then you’ll usually see one or two, possible more per year depending upon the weather patterns,” Maue said.

    WHAT DAMAGE CAN IT CAUSE?

    A 2020 derecho that traveled from eastern Nebraska across Iowa and parts of Wisconsin and Illinois reached wind speeds of a major hurricane. The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center reported winds approaching 100 mph (161 kph) in places. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, residents emerged from their homes to find an estimated 100,000 trees had been snapped or torn out of the ground.

    A 2009 storm dubbed a Super Derecho by the National Weather Service traveled from western Kansas to eastern Kentucky. It caused several deaths and injuries and more than $500 million in damages by the time it had traveled more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers).

    A 2003 derecho traveled from Arkansas through several southern states, including Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Two people died and 11 were hurt.

    In December 2021, a derecho in the Great Plains and Upper Midwest spawned at least 45 tornadoes, caused widespread damage and killed at least five people. It was the first on record in December in the United States.

    ARE THERE DIFFERENT TYPES OF DERECHOS?

    Yes. The August 2020 storm system was the result of what is known as a progressive derecho. The December 2021 event was a serial derecho.

    The weather service said a progressive derecho is fueled by a hot and moist environment with relatively strong winds aloft. Serial derechos are produced by storms with strong winds that bow outward, the service said. They sweep across an area both long and wide, driven by the presence of very strong winds in the atmosphere.

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  • Storm system dumps heavy, wet snow on Indiana and Michigan

    Storm system dumps heavy, wet snow on Indiana and Michigan

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    INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Heavy, wet snow — part of a storm system that spawned tornadoes in the Houston area — has covered roads, vehicles, houses and buildings Wednesday from central and northern Indiana into much of southeastern Michigan.

    About six inches of snow was expected to fall on the Detroit area, while four inches was reported before noon in eastern Indiana, just southwest of Fort Wayne, said Maddi Johnson of the National Weather Service in northern Indiana.

    The storm on Wednesday was expected to bring damaging winds to parts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, forecasters said. Winter weather advisories stretched from southern Missouri to Maine, with areas of New England expected to see 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters) of snow, the National Weather Service said.

    Fort Wayne, Indiana, has seen numerous crashes due to the snowfall on the roads.

    “People are sliding off exit ramps on the highways,” Johnson added. “They’re just driving too fast for the conditions.”

    Just north of Indianapolis, some power outages were reported in Hamilton County as the wet snow accumulated on power lines, said meteorologist Gregory Melo with the weather service’s Indianapolis office.

    Indianapolis had recorded 2.8 inches by about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and while the snow was still falling it was expected to end by early afternoon. Total snowfall amounts were projected to range from 5 to 8 inches to the north and northeast of Indianapolis by mid to late afternoon.

    “This is one of the first big snowfalls we’ve had,” said Scott Cabauatan, deputy director of public services in Wayne County, which includes Detroit. “This snowfall poses a concern from the aspect that it’s a wet, heavy snow versus a lighter snow.”

    Cabauatan said crews will roughly clear on one regular pass just under 5,000 lane miles of roadway. “We will have right around 100 pieces of equipment and operators working” at any given time to salt and clear roadways of snow and ice, he added.

    Snow also is in the forecast for late in the week and over the weekend. “We’re anticipating many days on end of working here and being in the trucks,” Cabauatan said.

    Schools and businesses remained closed Wednesday in parts of Oklahoma, which saw snowfall totals of between 1 and 6 inches (3 and 15 centimeters) across central and eastern parts of the state. More than 160,000 homes and businesses were without power Wednesday morning in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri after heavy snow fell in the Ozarks a day earlier.

    On Tuesday, forecasters issued a rare tornado emergency for the Houston area as the storm system moved through the heavily populated area. Substantial damage was reported in cities east of Houston, but there were no reports of injuries.

    In Louisiana, three people suffered “mild to moderate injuries” when their mobile homes were flipped or destroyed after a tornado hit the Morel Lane area north of Baton Rouge, the Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff’s Office said.

    In Texas, several businesses in Pasadena, east of Houston, sustained major damage, including the city’s animal shelter.

    ___

    Householder reported from Wayne, Michigan. Associated Press writers Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, David Phillip in Pasadena, Texas, and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

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  • Storm system dumps heavy, wet snow on Indiana and Michigan

    Storm system dumps heavy, wet snow on Indiana and Michigan

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    INDIANAPOLIS — Heavy, wet snow — part of a storm system that spawned tornadoes in the Houston area — has covered roads, vehicles, houses and buildings Wednesday from central and northern Indiana into much of southeastern Michigan.

    About six inches of snow was expected to fall on the Detroit area, while four inches was reported before noon in eastern Indiana, just southwest of Fort Wayne, said Maddi Johnson of the National Weather Service in northern Indiana.

    The storm on Wednesday was expected to bring damaging winds to parts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, forecasters said. Winter weather advisories stretched from southern Missouri to Maine, with areas of New England expected to see 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters) of snow, the National Weather Service said.

    Fort Wayne, Indiana, has seen numerous crashes due to the snowfall on the roads.

    “People are sliding off exit ramps on the highways,” Johnson added. “They’re just driving too fast for the conditions.”

    Just north of Indianapolis, some power outages were reported in Hamilton County as the wet snow accumulated on power lines, said meteorologist Gregory Melo with the weather service’s Indianapolis office.

    Indianapolis had recorded 2.8 inches by about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and while the snow was still falling it was expected to end by early afternoon. Total snowfall amounts were projected to range from 5 to 8 inches to the north and northeast of Indianapolis by mid to late afternoon.

    “This is one of the first big snowfalls we’ve had,” said Scott Cabauatan, deputy director of public services in Wayne County, which includes Detroit. “This snowfall poses a concern from the aspect that it’s a wet, heavy snow versus a lighter snow.”

    Cabauatan said crews will roughly clear on one regular pass just under 5,000 lane miles of roadway. “We will have right around 100 pieces of equipment and operators working” at any given time to salt and clear roadways of snow and ice, he added.

    Snow also is in the forecast for late in the week and over the weekend. “We’re anticipating many days on end of working here and being in the trucks,” Cabauatan said.

    Schools and businesses remained closed Wednesday in parts of Oklahoma, which saw snowfall totals of between 1 and 6 inches (3 and 15 centimeters) across central and eastern parts of the state. More than 160,000 homes and businesses were without power Wednesday morning in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri after heavy snow fell in the Ozarks a day earlier.

    On Tuesday, forecasters issued a rare tornado emergency for the Houston area as the storm system moved through the heavily populated area. Substantial damage was reported in cities east of Houston, but there were no reports of injuries.

    In Louisiana, three people suffered “mild to moderate injuries” when their mobile homes were flipped or destroyed after a tornado hit the Morel Lane area north of Baton Rouge, the Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff’s Office said.

    In Texas, several businesses in Pasadena, east of Houston, sustained major damage, including the city’s animal shelter.

    ___

    Householder reported from Wayne, Michigan. Associated Press writers Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, David Phillip in Pasadena, Texas, and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

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  • As tornadoes hit, survivors hid in tubs, shipping container

    As tornadoes hit, survivors hid in tubs, shipping container

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    MARBURY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama engine mechanic took refuge in a shipping container as a tornado from a violent storm decimated his shop and killed two of his neighbors along its destructive path across Alabama and Georgia.

    The harrowing stories of David Hollon and other survivors of Thursday’s storm are emerging as residents comb through the wreckage wrought by tornadoes and blistering winds that have led to the deaths of at least nine people.

    In Alabama’s rural Autauga County, where at least seven people have died, Hollon and his workers saw a massive tornado churning toward them. They needed to get to shelter — immediately.

    Hollon said they ran into a metal shipping container near the back of his garage because the container had been anchored to the floor with concrete. Once inside, Hollon began frantically dialing his neighbor on the phone. But as they heard the garage being ripped apart by the storm, the call kept going to voicemail.

    The storm passed and they emerged, only to find the body of his neighbor in the street, he said. Another neighbor up the road had also died, a family member said.

    “I guess we did a lot better than most. We got damage, but we’re still here,” Hollon, 52, said in an interview Saturday as he walked amidst the remains of his garage, stepping through a field littered with battered cars, shattered glass, snapped tree branches, splintered wood and other debris.

    Leighea Johnson, a 54-year-old cafeteria worker who also lives in Autauga County, stood among the strewn remains of her trailer home. She pointed to a tall pile of rubble that she identified as her bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.

    A swing set she had in her backyard was now across the street, mangled among some trees. Her outdoor trampoline had been wrapped around another set of trees in a neighbor’s front yard.

    “The trailer should be here, and now it’s not,” Johnson said, pointing to a slab covered in debris, “And it is all over the place now.”

    The storm brought powerful twisters and winds to Alabama and Georgia that uprooted trees, sent mobile homes airborne, derailed a freight train, flipped cars, cracked utility poles and downed power lines, leaving thousands without electricity. Suspected tornado damage was reported in at least 14 counties in Alabama and 14 counties in Georgia, according to the National Weather Service.

    Early Sunday, President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Alabama and ordered federal aid to supplement recovery efforts in affected areas.

    Autauga County officials said the tornado had winds of at least 136 mph (218 kph) and leveled damage consistent with an EF3, two steps below the most powerful category of twister. County authorities have said at least a dozen people were hospitalized and about 40 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged, including mobile homes that were launched into the air.

    Residents described chaotic scenes as the storm spun toward them. People rushed into shelters, bathtubs and sheds as the winds bore down. In one case, a search crew found five people, trapped but unharmed, inside a storm shelter after a wall from a nearby house fell onto it.

    Downtown Selma sustained severe damage before the worst of the weather moved across Georgia south of Atlanta. No deaths were reported in Selma.

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said the damage was felt across his state. Some of the worst reports emerged from Troup County near the Georgia-Alabama line, where more than 100 homes were hit.

    Kemp said a state transportation department worker was killed while responding to storm damage. A 5-year-old child who was riding in a vehicle was killed by a falling tree in Georgia’s Butts County, authorities said. At least 12 people were treated at a hospital in Spalding County, south of Atlanta, where the weather service confirmed at least two tornadoes struck.

    Johnson, the cafeteria worker in Autauga County, said she was at work when she learned the storm would pass directly over her home. She quickly warned her daughter, who was with her 2-year-old grandson at home.

    “I called my daughter and said, ‘You do not have time to get out, you’ve got to get somewhere now,”’ Johnson said, her voice cracking. “And she said, ’I’m getting in the tub. If the house is messed up I’ll be in the tub area.”

    The call dropped. Johnson kept calling back. When she finally reconnected with her daughter, Johnson said she told her: “The house is gone, the house is gone.”

    Her daughter and grandson had some cuts and bruises but were otherwise fine after a trip to the emergency room, Johnson said.

    “I brought her home and tried not to let go of her after that,” Johnson said. “I lost a lot of things materialistically and I don’t have insurance but I don’t even care, because my child is all right.

    “That’s really all that matters to me.”

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