By Emily Wagster Pettus, Michael Goldberg and Rogelio Solis
Associated Press
ROLLING FORK, Miss. 鈥� A powerful tornado cut a devastating path through , killing around two dozen people and obliterating dozens of buildings, as it stayed on the ground for more than an hour.
The tornado flattened entire blocks of the small Mississippi Delta town of Rolling Fork, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars on their sides and toppling the water tower. Residents hunkered down in bath tubs and broke into a John Deere store that they converted into a triage center for the wounded.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency warned in a tweet Saturday that the casualty toll could go higher than the 23 dead and four missing it had identified, saying: 鈥淯nfortunately, these numbers are expected to change.鈥�
Meanwhile other parts of the were digging out from damage from other suspected twisters. One man also died in Morgan County, Alabama, the sheriff鈥檚 department there said in a .
鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing left,鈥� said Wonder Bolden, holding her granddaughter, Journey, while standing outside the remnants of her mother鈥檚 now-leveled mobile home in Rolling Fork. 鈥淭here鈥檚 just the breeze that鈥檚 running, going through -- just nothing.鈥�
Throughout Saturday, she and others walked around dazed and in shock as they broke through debris and fallen trees with chain saws, searching for survivors. Power lines were pinned under decades-old oaks, their roots torn from the ground.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued a State of Emergency and vowed to help rebuild as he headed to view the damage in an area speckled with wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields and catfish farming ponds. President Joe Biden also promised federal help, describing the damage as 鈥渉eartbreaking.鈥�
The damage in Rolling Fork was so widespread that several storm chasers 鈥� who follow severe weather and often put up livestreams showing dramatic funnel clouds 鈥� pleaded for search and rescue help. Others abandoned the chase to drive injured people to the hospital.
But it didn鈥檛 help that the community hospital on the west side of town was damaged, forcing patients to be transferred.
Sheddrick Bell, his partner and two daughters crouched in a closet of their Rolling Fork home for 15 minutes as the tornado barreled through. His daughters wouldn鈥檛 stop crying. He could hear his partner praying out loud beside him.
鈥淚 was just thinking, 鈥業f I can still open my eyes and move around, I鈥檓 good,鈥欌�� he said.
Rodney Porter, who lives about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Rolling Fork and belongs to a local fire department, said he didn鈥檛 know how anyone survived as he delivered water and fuel to families there.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like a bomb went off,鈥� he said, describing houses stacked on top of houses. Crews even cut gas lines to the town to keep residents and first responders safe.
The warning the National Weather Service issued as the storm hit didn鈥檛 mince words: 鈥淭o protect your life, TAKE COVER NOW!鈥�
Preliminary information based on estimates from storm reports and radar data indicate that it was on the ground for more than an hour and traversed at least 170 miles (274 kilometers), said Lance Perrilloux, a meteorologist with the weather service鈥檚 Jackson, Mississippi, office.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 rare 鈥� very, very rare,鈥� he said, attributing the long path to widespread atmospheric instability. 鈥淎ll the ingredients were there.鈥�
Perrilloux said preliminary findings are that the tornado began its path of destruction just southwest of Rolling Fork before continuing northeast toward the rural communities of Midnight and Silver City before moving toward Tchula, Black Hawk and Winona.
The supercell that produced the deadly twister also appeared to produce tornadoes that caused damage in northwest and north-central Alabama, said Brian Squitieri, a severe storms forecaster with Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
In northern Alabama鈥檚 Morgan County, a 67-year-old man who became trapped beneath a trailer that flipped over during severe overnight storms was rescued by first responders, but he died later at a hospital, reported.
Even as survey teams work to assess how many tornadoes struck and their severity, the Storm Prediction Center is warning of the potential for hail, wind and possibly a few tornadoes Sunday in parts of Mississippi and Louisiana.
Cornel Knight told The Associated Press that he, his wife and their 3-year-old daughter were at a relative鈥檚 home in Rolling Fork when the tornado struck. He said the sky was dark but 鈥測ou could see the direction from every transformer that blew.鈥�
He said the tornado struck another relative鈥檚 home across a wide cornfield from where he was. A wall in that home collapsed and trapped several people inside.
Royce Steed, the emergency manager in Humphreys County where Silver City is located, likened the damage to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
鈥淚t is almost complete devastation,鈥� he said after crews finished searching buildings and switched to damage assessments. 鈥淭his little old town, I don鈥檛 know what the population is, it is more or less wiped off the map.鈥�
In the town, the roof had torn off Noel Crook鈥檚 home, where he lives there with his wife.
鈥淵esterday was yesterday and that鈥檚 gone 鈥� there鈥檚 nothing I can do about it,鈥� Crook said. 鈥淭omorrow is not here yet. You don鈥檛 have any control over it, so here I am today.鈥�
The tornado looked so powerful on radar as it neared the town of Amory, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Tupelo, that one Mississippi meteorologist paused to say a prayer after new radar information came in.
鈥淥h man,鈥� Matt Laubhan said on the live broadcast. 鈥淒ear Jesus, please help them. Amen.鈥�
Now that town is boiling its water, a curfew in effect.
More than a half-dozen shelters were opened in the state to house the displaced.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a priceless feeling to see the gratitude on people鈥檚 faces to know they鈥檙e getting a hot meal,鈥� said William Trueblood, emergency disaster services director for the Salvation Army鈥檚 Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi Division, as he headed to the area, picking up supplies along the way.
He said they鈥檙e hearing at least 19,000 homes were impacted by the severe weather.
Still, there were signs of improvement. Power outages, which at one point were affecting more than 75,000 customers in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama, had been cut by a third by midafternoon Saturday, according to poweroutage.us.
Meteorologists saw a big tornado risk coming for the general region as much as a week in advance, said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Walker Ashley.
Tornado experts like Ashley have been warning about increased risk exposure in the region because of people building more.
鈥淵ou mix a particularly socioeconomically vulnerable landscape with a fast-moving, long-track nocturnal tornado, and, disaster will happen,鈥� Ashley said in an email.
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Associated Press writer Emily Wagster Pettus in Rolling Fork, Mississippi; Michael Goldberg in Silver City, Mississippi; Jim Salter in O鈥橣allon, Missouri; Rick Callahan in Indianapolis; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington; Robert Jablon in Los Angeles; Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; and Jackie Quinn in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.