Tornadoes hit Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, death toll climbs
ThirteenDead in Arkansas, 2 in Oklahoma and a pair in Tennessee as tornadoes continue to ravage homes across America. “People in northern Mississippi and Alabama huddled in hallways and basements” began the CNN report on the new twisters slamming into these communities Monday.
Two people were killed at a trailer park west of Athens, Alabama, on Monday, according to a post on the City of Athens Facebook page. Another person died in Richland, Mississippi, said Rankin County Emergency Management Director Bob Wedgeworth, bringing the storms’ overall death toll to 19.
That toll is expected to rise. William McCully, spokesman for Mississippi’s Winston County, told CNN there have been “multiple fatalities” in his county.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency for all counties.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said the twisters inflicted “severe damage” around the town of Louisville, about 90 miles northeast of Jackson, and more around Tupelo. Winston Medical Center, Louisville’s major hospital, was among the buildings hit, Bryant told reporters.
“We have had early reports that the Winston Medical Center has received damage from a tornado. Walls are down. Some gas leak is occurring,” he said.
State emergency management chief Robert Latham said authorities were grappling with “multiple events over a wide part of the state,” and that more tornado warnings were expected.
“This is not over. It’s going to last on into the night,” he said.
“There were cars flipped everywhere, there were people screaming,” James Bryant, a Mississippi State University meteorology student, told CNN’s “New Day” on Monday. “It was a tough scene.”
CNN iReporter Logan Pierce spoke of being awakened by booming thunder that “shook our whole house,” while iReporter Brianna Davis saw devastated homes, snapped trees and widespread debris Monday morning.
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