April 24, 2010
NBC, msnbc.com and news services
JACKSON, Miss. - Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms hopscotched across the South on Saturday, flattening homes and buildings in Mississippi and damaging a chemical plant and shipyard in Louisiana, emergency officials said. At least 10 people, including two children, were killed and dozens injured.
Photo: An emergency official estimated that the storm left thousands without power and hundreds homeless. Left, destroyed homes along the north shore of Eagle Lake in Warren County. (Joe Ellis / AP)
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told The Associated Press there was "utter obliteration" in parts of Yazoo County, an area where he is from. More than 15 other counties also suffered damage.
"It’s a very, very bad storm and regretably we have fatalities," the governor told CNN Saturday night. "You could have gotten inside the closet in your house and still not have been saved."
The fast-moving storm system picked up steam as it crossed the river from Louisiana and punched into west-central Mississippi. A 3/4-mile-wide tornado wove a path of destruction as it headed northeast into Alabama, said Greg Flynn, spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency in Jackson.
Five people, including two children, died in Choctaw County, four in Yazoo County and one in Holmes County, Flynn said. He added that the death toll could rise.
In hard-hit Yazoo City in west-central Mississippi, Malcolm Gordon, 63, stood with members of his family peering out at the neighborhood through a broken window.
Above them, the roof was gone, a tree lay across part of the house and power lines stretched across the yard. The smell of shredded pine trees hung in the warm breeze in the neighborhood of modest houses and mobile homes surrounded by hills and ravines.
Photo: A tornado described by one Mississippi official as the worst in the area in decades swept through the state on Saturday, leaving at least 10 people dead in its path. Residents sifted through debris in a destroyed home near Yazoo City. (Will Smith / AP)
Gordon and his wife, Diane, hid in a closet while much of the neighborhood was blown away.
"I'll just bulldoze what's left and start over," he said.
It was one of several unlikely survival stories to emerge from the destruction.
Essie Hendrix, manager of Peebles department store in Yazoo City, said she and other employees were inside with about 15 customers when the tornado struck. An assistant manager took the customers to the back of the store, and Hendrix saw the tornado barreling through the parking lot. She huddled between a safe and a sturdy desk to avoid flying glass and debris.
"It was like a rumbling and a roaring and stuff was falling," Hendrix said. "It sounded like it was going to suck us out of there. It lasted about two minutes, but it felt like it lasted an hour."
No one in the store was injured.
About 100 yards away, the owner of Ribeye's Steak House said everyone ran into a walk-in freezer to safety when they saw the tornado.
Photo: Flags flew from bent poles in front of the rubble at the Hillcrest Baptist Church in Yazoo City. (AP / Will Smith)
"The roof was caving in, TVs flying off the shelves and it was horrible," Mitchell Saxton said. "... We got in the walk-in freezer, sat in there for about ten minutes. When I came out it was really bad. Just thanking the good Lord I'm here and able to talk with you all."
Saxton's restaurant was destroyed but no one was hurt.
Chemical Plant Hit
The severe weather started in Louisiana, just across the state line from Mississippi when a tornado destroyed 12 homes and warehouses at Complex Chemical Co., which makes antifreeze and other automotive fluids, owner Jerry Melton said. A small nitrogen leak was reported but didn't cause any problems.
A dozen people suffered broken bones, cuts or other injuries, and deputies had to clear fallen trees from several yards so people could get out of their houses, said sheriff's Maj. Neil Horath.
Northrop-Grumman Corp. spokesman Bill Glenn said the shipyard will be closed Monday to assess damages.
Photo: Jason Newell tried to salvage what he could from a church that was destroyed after a tornado swept through the area in Yazoo City, Miss. (Brian Albert Broom / Clarion-Ledger,)
The storm system moved east, with the twister hitting nearby Yazoo County, Miss., killing four people. In adjacent Holmes County, another person was killed. A little farther northeast, a tornado hit Choctaw County, where another five victims were reported, including the two children.
Sirens Wail
In Yazoo City, Miss., power lines and trees were down, blocking roads.
The Hinds County Sheriff's Department was sending two dozen deputies and about 100 inmates to help with the response in Yazoo County and clear debris.
In Yazoo City, stunned residents stood on a hill overlooking the destruction. A National Guard helicopter sat nearby, and later took the governor on an aerial tour of the town.
"Sad, man," said 22-year-old Rafael Scott, shaking his head. "It's really hard to believe it. I heard they found a couple of bodies."
Flynn said an unknown number of homes were also damaged in Warren, Issaquena and Holmes counties in the west-central part of the state.
Thousands across the state were without electricity, and downed power lines and trees blocked roads. State emergency management officials were working with the Red Cross and the Health Department to help set up shelters.
'Everything Is Down'
Photo: Three vehicles that rolled into the median on Interstate 55. (Chris Todd / Clarion-Ledger)
Willie M. Horton, 78, said he hunkered down in the hallway of his house in rural Holmes County, Miss., when the storm roared through the area.
"Everything is down. A lot of trees. Big trees," Horton said.
"My cousin — half his barn is gone," Horton said.
Karen Dunaway, a worker at the Triangle Cultural Center at the north end of downtown Yazoo City, said the severe weather spared the century-old, two-story building that was once a high school.
"We were having a children's dance recital. All the little children and all their worried parents went down to the basement and waited out the siren," Dunaway told msnbc.com. "We had some wind and some hard rain ... but the tornado evidently jumped us."
Survivor's Tale
Amid the destruction, a stunning tale of survival arose. Dale Thrasher, a Yazoo City man, told WLBT-TV he was inside the Hillcrest Baptist when his wife called him around 11:30 a.m. to tell him that a tornado was approaching. Thrasher looked outside and saw the rain and the funnel cloud. The only place he had to go was back inside the church.
Photo: The wheels of railroad cars cluttered the tracks after a train was overturned by a tornado in Madison, La. The storm touched down in Louisiana before crossing the Mississippi River at about 11:30 a.m. (Terrance Armstard / The News-Star)
Thrasher ran into the sanctuary and dived underneath the communion table as the church came down around him. Thrasher was not hurt.
The storms also damaged a church in east-central Mississippi and caused minor damage at Olive Branch Middle School in DeSoto County, just south of Memphis, Tenn.
A possible tornado was reported in Alabama, damaging homes and downing trees but causing no injuries. Earlier, NASCAR canceled all track activity at Talladega Superspeedway because of threats of severe weather.
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