Additional Coverage:
- Shocked residents emerge from shelters after tornadoes reduce homes to rubble and death toll rises to 39 (themirror.com)
Mississippi residents awoke Sunday to scenes of utter devastation after a deadly tornado system ripped through the region, claiming at least 39 lives. Homes were reduced to rubble, power grids were crippled, and businesses were heavily damaged.
In Tylertown, Mississippi, Hailey Hart, her fiancé Steve Romero, and their three huskies huddled inside their 1994 Toyota Celica as a tornado struck. The car was thrown onto its side, shattering the windows, before righting itself.
“It was a bad dream come true,” Romero recounted, describing how he held Hart and prayed as the twister raged. After the storm passed, they heard cries for help.
Miraculously, Hart’s grandparents, Donna Blansett and her husband, survived after taking shelter in a bathroom. “Everything was coming down on us,” Blansett said.
“All I could do was pray to God to save us.” The family escaped with only minor injuries.
On Sunday, loved ones and volunteers helped them salvage what they could from the wreckage.
The National Weather Service warned that although most tornado watches had been lifted, severe winds remained a threat in the Carolinas, east Georgia, and northern Florida through Sunday night. The storm system, which began Friday, had been given a rare “high risk” designation by forecasters. Experts noted that such severe weather is not uncommon in March.
President Donald Trump expressed his condolences via social media and pledged his administration’s support to the affected areas.
The tornadoes also cut a path of destruction across central Alabama, leaving at least three dead, including an 82-year-old woman. A recreation center in Troy, Alabama, serving as a shelter for over 200 people, sustained damage but reported no injuries.
In Missouri, Dakota Henderson described a grim search and rescue effort in Wayne County, where he and others found five bodies amidst the debris of his aunt’s home. At least a dozen fatalities were reported in Missouri.