From the NY Times….
Rescuers were pulling people from rubble on Saturday after a powerful storm system killed at least 23 in Mississippi and one more in Alabama. The storms, which spawned at least one powerful tornado, hit late Friday, ripping up trees, overturning trailers and leveling homes and businesses.
“My home is gone completely,” Ashley Nichols of Rolling Fork said while walking through the destruction. “My son’s home is gone.”
Her town in Sharkey County, in the west-central part of the state, appeared to be among the hardest hit. The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado had touched down there, wiping out the main commercial strip. “Devastating — that’s the only word I can say,” said Jerry Keever, director of the town’s hospital, which was being evacuated because of the lack of power and water.
Here are the details:
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The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said Saturday that dozens of people were injured and at least four were missing. “We have numerous local and state search-and-rescue teams that continue to work,” the agency said on Twitter, adding, “Unfortunately, these numbers are expected to change.”
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The National Weather Service office in Jackson, Miss., is sending out teams to assess the damage and to determine where tornadoes may have touched down. “At this time, we’re not sure if it was just one big long tornado that caused all of the damage, or if it lifted and then dropped a new one,” said Janae Elkins, a Weather Service meteorologist.
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About 60,000 electricity customers in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee were still without power by Saturday afternoon, with some of the worst-hit counties nearly completely knocked out, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. Water utilities were also damaged; the hard-hit community of Armory, Miss., warned residents to boil water before drinking it….