- The three states were hit by a series of tornadoes on Monday evening
- At least 11 people are reported dead - seven in Mississippi, two confirmed in Alabama and two more in Tennessee
- A woman died earlier on Monday in Mississippi when her car either hydroplaned or blew off a road during the storm in Verona, south of Tupelo
- Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant had earlier declared a state of emergency in advance of the dangerous storms
- Twisters killed at least 15 people in Arkansas and Oklahoma on Sunday and the powerful storm system is set to continue to threatened large parts of the South until Wednesday
The
destruction being wreaked by a series of tornadoes across the south was
laid bare on Monday by images of a horrifying trail of dead and injured
farm animals tossed aside by twisters.
The images emerged from Arkansas as another series of tornadoes hit Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee on Monday night, part of a powerful storm system that
has threatened large areas of the South with more twisters, severe
thunderstorms, damaging hail and flash floods, authorities said.
As
the storm swept across a large part of the U.S., the overall death toll
was at least 28, with 11 killed in the South on Monday and 17 in the
central region on Sunday.
On
Tuesday morning, many woke to sirens, tornado warnings, damaged
property and downed trees. Forecasts showed Georgia as the next likely
target, with 89 counties under a tornado watch until 11 a.m. Alabama,
Mississippi and Tennessee were hit with the brunt of the storm Monday.
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Rick and Cheryl Ross of Quapaw,
Oklahoma, are trying to piece their lives together after seeing their
second home destroyed by nature's fury.
Their first was levelled in the May 2008 tornado in Picher, less than six miles away, so they moved to Quapaw.
Rick told KJRH: 'There was no time. It just hit. I wanted to go out to the (storm) cellar.
'And that's when I seen everything start to explode out here. So then I just shoved her down, got on top of her and that was it.'
Mrs Ross added: 'He offered himself so that I wouldn't be hurt. We're truly blessed.'
Ruth Bennett died clutching the
last child left at her day care centre, as a tornado wiped her business
off its foundation, flinging it into the backyard of a neighboring home.
Bennett's niece, Panisha Lockett, said all but the one child had been picked up from Ruth's Child Care Center before the storm hit. She said the 4-year-old had been coming to the centre since she was a baby. The child, who has not been identified, was transported to a Jackson hospital. Her condition was not known.
Lockett said Bennett had been running her own child care centre for seven years.
'She just wants to help children and run her own business,' Lockett said. 'I left her (Bennett) her and I wish I had stayed because she asked me to stay with her.'
Horrifying: dead and injured
cattle lay in a field near Vilonia, Arkansas on Monday in the wake of a
Sunday tornado. At least 28 people have now been killed by the storm
system sweeping the U.S.
Awe-inspiring: A funnel cloud is seen crossing the town of Louisville, Mississippi, yesterday
Witness: Storm chaser video photographer Brad Mac films rotating clouds from a tornado storm in Louisville, MississippiFury: Lighting strikes from a TVS (tornadic vortex signature) storm in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Torrent: A sheet of water cascades down the front of a building in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
A demolished car sits on North
Gloster Street across from what remains of a shell gas station in
Tupelo, Mississippi, after a tornado touched down on MondayDevastation: Residents go through the rubble of
their home, one day after it was destroyed by a tornado near Vilonia,
Arkansas, on Monday
A newly built school was destroyed by one of Sunday's tornados in this aerial photograph near Vilonia, Arkansas
Constance Lambert embraces her dog after finding it alive when returning to her destroyed home in Tupelo, Mississippi, on Monday
Tornados flattened homes and businesses, flipped
trucks over on highways and injured numerous people in Mississippi and
Alabama on Monday as a massive, dangerous storm system passed over
several states in the South
Arc: Lighting strikes from a storm in Columbus, Mississippi
In Mississippi, Republican state Sen.
Giles Ward huddled in a bathroom with his wife, four other family
members and their dog Monday as a tornado destroyed his two-story brick
house and flipped his son-in-law's SUV upside down onto the patio in
Louisville.
'For about 30 seconds, it was unbelievable,' Ward said. 'It's about as awful as anything we've gone through.'
The
dangerous weather jangled nerves a day after the three-year anniversary
of a historic outbreak of more than 60 tornadoes that killed more than
250 people across Alabama on April 27, 2011.
Weather satellites showed tumultuous clouds arcing across much of the South over the course of the day Monday.
Aftermath: William Higgins sits on a stump outside his grandfather's house after it was destroyed by a tornado yesterday
People walk down Green Street to the corner of North Gloster Street after a tornado went through Tupelo, Mississippi
Gutted: The living room of a house destroyed by a tornado that tore through Mayflower, Arkansas
An 18-wheeler and numerous strips of sheet metal block the southbound lanes of U.S. 49 in Richland, Mississippi
Looming: A massive wedge tornado bears down on the city of Tupelo
The
system is the latest onslaught of severe weather a day after a
half-mile-wide tornado carved an 80-mile path of destruction through the
suburbs of Little Rock, Arkansas, killing at least 15. Tornadoes or
severe storms also killed one person each in Oklahoma and Iowa on
Sunday.
One
victim was a woman who died in the day care centre she owned in
Louisville, county Coroner Scott Gregory told The Associated Press late
Monday. Authorities were returning to the centre Tuesday.
One
seriously injured child was evacuated, said state Rep. Michael Evans,
who said authorities don't think any other children were in the centre
during the storm.
It
was unclear if any children were in the day care centre at the time,
said William McCully, acting spokesman for the Winston County Emergency
Management Agency.
Earlier
Monday, emergency officials attending a news conference with
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said seven people had been killed
statewide. State Director of Health Protection Jim Craig said officials
were working with coroners to confirm the total. It was unclear if the
deaths in Winston County were included in that tally.
Carnage: A man surveys the damage to South Lincoln Elementary School after strong winds ripped through the area
Asunder: A large tornado jumped Mississippi
Highway 25 south of Louisville, Mississippi, causing this scene of
carnage before hitting the city of Louisville
Grim task: Emergency personnel search the remains of several mobile homes for survivors in Louisville, Mississippi
Continuing fears: Many severe weather warnings remain in place across the South
Collapse: A motel, left, and a restaurant both show damage sustained from a tornado in Tupelo
Ripped up: Uprooted trees are pictured from above after a tornado hit Vilonia, Arkansas
An American flag is mounted on
mobile home debris as a searcher looks through the remains of several
mobile homes in Louisville, Mississippi
In southern
Tennessee, two people were killed in a home when a suspected tornado hit
Monday night, Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Mike Hall
said. The winds destroyed several other homes as well as a middle school
in the county that borders Alabama, Hall said.
Along
Mississippi Highway 397 on the eastern edge of Louisville early
Tuesday, firefighters could be seen picking through the remains of an
unidentified number of pulverized mobile homes. Lt. Brian Arnett of the
Starkville Fire Department said they were searching for three people who
were unaccounted for.
In
Kimberly, Alabama, a suspected tornado hit before midnight Monday,
tearing the A-shaped roof off a church. On Tuesday morning, the roof sat
in a solid piece beside the red brick church.
Across
the street, the cinderblock walls from an old fishing supply store were
scattered around the gravel parking lot. The building's metal frame
remained. Down the road, the fire department was flattened.
Tim
Armstrong picked up pieces of splintered trees in his backyard.
Armstrong, his wife and their two young daughters were home when the
storm struck. He said they were listening to weather reports on
television and heard an all-clear for their area.
'Three
minutes later my mother-in-law calls, says there's a tornado in
Morris,' a nearby town, Armstrong said. 'The power went out, and we went
running to the middle of the house.'
They heard the wind roaring and glass shattering as a tree flew through their front door. 'Once I heard that, I knew something was pretty wrong. It was fast. It was so fast.'
The whole thing was over a minute later, he said.
They heard the wind roaring and glass shattering as a tree flew through their front door. 'Once I heard that, I knew something was pretty wrong. It was fast. It was so fast.'
The whole thing was over a minute later, he said.
About 100 yards away, 20 firefighters linked hands and waded through an area where woodframe homes had been heavily damaged.
Trees
in Louisville had been snapped in half and stripped of their branches,
while sheet metal had twisted itself around road signs and tree trunks.
Rescue workers stepped gingerly over downed power lines.
The
tornado in Louisville also caused water damage and carved holes in the
roof of the Winston Medical Center, according to an Associated Press
reporter at the centre.
Defiance: A U.S. flag sticks out the window of a damaged hot rod car in a suburban area after a tornado near Vilonia, Arkansas
Pride: Justin Shaw, left, helps Nick Conway erect a make-shift flag pole at his home that was destroyed in Vilonia
VICTIMS OF NATURE'S FURY: THE STORIES OF THOSE LOST TO THE STORM
The
fierce tornado that swept through Arkansas killed more than a dozen
people, including two sisters and their father, part of a large family
that had gathered for a quiet evening before the storm drove them to
seek shelter under a staircase.
'You
could just see the wind was just crazy,' Emily Tittle, 17, said Monday
as she searched for keepsakes to save in the ruins of her family's rural
home in the rolling hills west of Little Rock. In a pile, she and
others helped her gather family photos in a plastic, pink tray.
Tittle
said she, her eight siblings and her parents scurried for safety under
the stairs in the two-story house, but only half of them made it before
the walls were obliterated by the twister that left just the foundation
behind.
Her
father, Rob Tittle, and two sisters, Tori, 20, and Rebekah, 14, were
killed. All six of her other siblings were taken to hospitals, three of
whom have since been released.
She
said she planned to meet up with her mother who is still alive later in
the day, but said she hadn't heard from her since the night before.
One
of her neighbors, Jon Zieske, found a tooth when he was collecting
photos. Shelly Linn, for years a mail carrier in the area, was pitching
in, hoping to help. Turning to Tittle amid Monday's scavenge, Linn
sought guidance.
'Baby
girl, what do you want me to do?' Linn asked the teenager, whose gray
sweatpants, short-sleeved Snoopy T-shirt and sneakers were among her
now-few possessions.
Pausing, Tittle surveyed the devastation.
'I don't know if we can find anything,' she said.
Daniel Wassom was huddled in a hallway
of a Vilonia home during the storm with his wife, Suzanne, and
daughters Lorelei, five, and Sydney, seven, neighbors and a relative
said.
Suzanne Wassom even
posted on Facebook about it. At the height of the tornado, a large piece
of lumber crashed toward the family. Dan Wassom, 31, who served in the
Air Force, shielded Lorelei, taking the brunt of the blow to his neck,
said Carol Arnett, Dan Wassom's grandmother.
It
was a fatal blow. Lorelei suffered a shoulder injury and was
hospitalized. Suzanne Wassom was hospitalized with a concussion, her
aunt, Sherry Madden, said.
Friends and family sift through debris at the
home of Daniel Wassom after his house was destroyed by a tornado
yesterday. He died trying to shield a family member
'Dan always put his family first,' Arnett said, wiping away tears. 'They're just good people. They love God and their children.'
The
home was levelled. Arnett had driven to Vilonia on Monday from her home
in Wagner, Oklahoma, to help find mementos in the debris field that
used to be the family home. Neighbors Nicholas and Brittany White
helped, finding Suzanne Wassom's pocket purse and other treasured items.
'He'd do anything for anybody,' Nicholas White said of Dan Wassom.
Daniel
and April Smith, both working as recruiters of truck drivers, moved to
Vilonia last fall, focusing on the shiny new intermediate school that
their two boys could one day attend.
On
Sunday, their sons, third-grader Cameron Smith and first-grader Tyler
Smith, were killed when the tornado destroyed the family's home.
Daniel and April Smith were seriously injured.
'It's
a beautiful place to live,' Eric Hancock, a family friend who often
baby-sat the boys, said Monday of Vilonia, some 25 miles from the
Smiths' previous home in Sherwood, Arkansas.
'They
found a great house at a reasonable price, and they were looking for
schools and things. They had just built that new one. It just seemed
right.'
Tyler
was seven. Hancock, who was with the boys' parents, said Cameron was 9,
though the Faulkner County coroner listed the boy's age as eight.
Hancock said both boys loved baseball, fishing and God.
Cameron
also enjoyed hunting, getting his first crack at it last October during
deer season, Hancock said. Cameron fired at two different deer but
missed, his nerves getting the best of him.
Tyler, Hancock said, 'was a pistol, with more energy than any 16 people I know.'
'He was just a light in the world,' he said.
Their first was levelled in the May 2008 tornado in Picher, less than six miles away, so they moved to Quapaw.
Rick told KJRH: 'There was no time. It just hit. I wanted to go out to the (storm) cellar.
'And that's when I seen everything start to explode out here. So then I just shoved her down, got on top of her and that was it.'
Mrs Ross added: 'He offered himself so that I wouldn't be hurt. We're truly blessed.'
Bennett's niece, Panisha Lockett, said all but the one child had been picked up from Ruth's Child Care Center before the storm hit. She said the 4-year-old had been coming to the centre since she was a baby. The child, who has not been identified, was transported to a Jackson hospital. Her condition was not known.
Lockett said Bennett had been running her own child care centre for seven years.
'She just wants to help children and run her own business,' Lockett said. 'I left her (Bennett) her and I wish I had stayed because she asked me to stay with her.'
The path of a tornado is seen in
this aerial image near Vilonia, Arkansas: A ferocious storm system
caused a twister in Mississippi and threatened tens of millions of
people across the U.S. Southeast on Monday, a day after it spawned
tornadoes that killed 16 people and tossed cars like toys in Arkansas
and other states
Esmeralda, left and Craig Stanford help a friend
clean up his North Gloster Street Texaco gas station and quick stop in
Tupelo, Miss, on Monday
Waking up to wreckage: Seventeen year-old Deanna
Locke and her siblings including, from left, Charlotte, 13; Drew, 9;
and Trinity, 11; examine a downed tree across the street from their home
in Tupelo, Mississippi on April 28
Path of destruction: This map highlights the path tornadoes that hit several states on Sunday took
Storm chaser Brad Mack points out a TVS
(tornadic vortex signature) tornado storm on the radar going over his
hotel in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Severe damage: destroyed wood can be seen on piled-up Tupelo cars in this photograph
Tossed up: A van was seen on top of other cars in the wake of tornado damage in Tupelo
Several injuries were reported along with extensive damage in the northern Mississippi city of Tupelo, pictured
Responding: Tupelo police are picured in the
city responding to the storm's damage. It is not clear how many people
had been injured because relief efforts are still underway
There were about 15 patients in hospital rooms and eight or nine in the emergency room, where evacuations were underway.
'We
thought we were going to be OK then a guy came in and said, "It's here
right now",' said Dr. Michael Henry, head of the emergency room. 'Then
boom ... it blew through.'
One
of the deaths in Mississippi involved a woman who was killed when her
car either hydroplaned or was blown off a road during the storm in
Verona, south of Tupelo, said Lee County Coroner Carolyn Gillentine
Green.
In northern Alabama,
the coroner's office confirmed two deaths Monday in a twister that
caused extensive damage west of the city of Athens, said Limestone
County Emergency Director Rita White. White said more victims could be
trapped in the wreckage of damaged buildings, but rescuers could not
reach some areas because of downed power lines.
Separately,
Limestone Commissioner Bill Latimer said he received reports of four
deaths in the county from one of his workers. Neither the governor's
office nor state emergency officials could immediately confirm those
deaths.
Emotional: Sherry Lee, left, and her
daughter-in-law Amanda Lee react on April 28 after finding family photos
among the ruins of Sherry Lee's Vilonia home in the wake of the twister
Wreckage: Piles of debris are seen in all that's
left to homes located off Cemetery Street in Vilonia, Arkansas after
the tornado struck down
Disaster: Dino McLaughlin crawls over a pile of debris which is all that's left of his friends storage unit in Vilonia
No fatalities so far have been reported in Tupelo, though there have been others in Arkansas and Oklahoma
Chaos: A travel trailer sits inn the rubble of a house in Mayflower, Arkansas on April 28
Damage shows the path of a tornado through Quapaw, Oklahoma on April 28
Residents and friends sift through debris after a tornado struck the area on Monday in Vilonia, Arkansas
Numerous watches and warnings were
still active in Alabama, with forecasters warning the severe weather
could continue all night.
In
Tupelo, Mississippi., a community of about 35,000 in northeastern Mississippi,
every building in a two-block area south of U.S. Highway 78 suffered
damage, officials told a reporter on the scene.
Some buildings had their
roofs sheared off, while power lines had been knocked down completely
or bent at 45-degree angles. Road crews were using heavy machinery to
clear off other streets.
The
Northeast Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo had received 30 patients
as of Monday night, four of whom were being admitted with
non-life-threatening injuries, said centre spokeswoman Deborah Pugh.
Pugh said the other 26 patients were treated for minor injuries and
released.
Bryant declared a state of emergency Monday in advance of
the storms, which sent emergency officials rushing to put plans in
place.
With the wind howling outside and rain blowing sideways,
Monica Foster rode out a tornado warning with her two daughters, ages 10
and 12, inside a gas station near Fayette, Ala. One of the girls cried
as the three huddled with a station employee in a storage area beside a
walk-in cooler.
Foster, who was returning home to Lynn on rural roads
after a funeral in Tuscaloosa, said she typically would have kept
driving through the deluge.
'I wouldn't have pulled in if I didn't have the two girls,' she said.
Wreckage: Books are stacked on a water heater
after a strong tornado went through the area on April 27 for the second
time in three years on April 28, 2014 in Vilonia, Arkansas
Devastation: Tornado damage inside the Mayflower
R.V. Park is seen the day after a tornado struck in Mayflower,
Arkansas, USA. At least 15 people have been killed in the outbreak of
tornados in Arkansas and Oklahoma, according to authorities
Piles of mangled cars and destroyed homes sit
along Aspen Creek Drive in the Parkwood Neighborhood off Naylor Road in
Vilonia, Arkansas on April 28
Flattened: A row of lightly damages houses, top, face destroyed homes in a Vilonia, Arkansas, neighborhood on April 28
Lost: Bob Van Byssum walks through his home in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Monday April 28
In Memphis, Tennessee, officials declared a state of emergency in a county southwest of Nashville because of flash flooding.
Authorities urged people there to seek higher ground after several
homes and some business were flooded in Maury County and officials
reported worries some school buses couldn't get schoolchildren home over
swamped roads.
'If
it's unsafe certainly the drivers are not going to chance it,' said a
Maury County emergency official, Mark Blackwood, said of the school
buses.
The same storm system was heading from Mississippi toward the Alabama line late on Monday.
The
National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for most of north
Alabama, and the entire state was under a flash flood watch. Tornado
warnings began popping up on weather maps in Alabama as soon as storms
crossed the Mississippi state line on Monday afternoon.
More
than 50 school systems shut down early in Alabama's northern half as a
precaution against having children and workers on the road in buses and
cars when the storms arrived. Several cities closed municipal offices
early.
More
than a hundred tornadoes are set to hit the Midwest and the South this
week as part of a powerful storm system that is impacting on the Midwest
and the South
Search: Mayflower RV employee Andrea Jones
crouches inside the crushed remains of an RV that belonged to two of her
friends searching for anything she might save for them after a tornado
destroyed the RV park in Mayflower, Arkansas, on Monday April 28
Clean up: volunteers begin clean up following yesterday's tornado in Quapaw, Oklahoma on Monday, April 28
Hope: Rescue workers and volunteers stand amid
debris of homes, one day after they were destroyed by a tornado in
Vilonia, Arkansas on April 28
Spoiled: Bottles of condiments lie inside a
refrigerator door on the grounds of a destroyed house a day after a
tornado hit the town of Vilonia, Arkansas on April 28
Recovery: Justin Shaw, left, helps Nick Conway
erect a flag pole at his home that was destroyed by a tornado on April
28 in Vilonia, Arkansas
Embrace: Residents and friends sift through debris after a tornado struck the area on April 28 in Vilonia, Arkansas
Starting over: Homes and businesses are wrecked
in downtown Vilonia, Arkansas. The most powerful twister this year
carved an 80-mile path of destruction through suburbs north of the state
capital of Little Rock, killing at least 16 people
Residents survey the damage in a residential neighborhood in Quapaw, Okla., after it was struck by a tornado on Sunday evening
Messed up: A trail of debris, bottom, leads along the path of a tornado-devastated neighborhood in Vilonia, Arkansas
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