Mississippi faced the extent of the devastation on Sunday after tornadoes swept through the previous day that killed at least 25 people, officials in this southern United States state said, and as more severe weather is expected in the evening.
The tornadoes swept more than 150 miles west-east across Mississippi, causing “devastating damage,” according to Gov. Tate Reeves.
One has been provisionally classified as Category 4 (out of 5 on the Fujita scale), the Mississippi Emergency Medical Services (MSEMA) said.
In Rolling Fork, a community of about 2,000 that was badly hit by Friday’s tornado, the streets resemble a “war zone,” John Brown, a Red Cross official for Alabama and Mississippi, told AFP.
Rows of homes have been ripped from their meager foundations, streets are littered with debris and roofed cars, and two tractor-trailers were stacked on top of each other by the devastating tornado.
Trees were also uprooted and pieces of metal wrapped around the trunks.
“Heartbreaking” images
On Saturday, the organization of help in the city began. The American Red Cross has taken over a building belonging to the National Guard, in which, in addition to camp beds, food and essentials are pouring in.
Some have traveled tens of miles to borrow reinforcements.
Jon Gebhardt, an assistant professor of military science at the University of Mississippi at Oxford, about three hours from Rolling Fork, said he arrived Friday night into Saturday after the tornado struck to help erect the center on foot.
Faced with the “pain and fear” of the residents, I “cried a lot” on Saturday, he admits to AFP.