LOUISVILLE,
Miss. (AP) — Ruth Bennett died clutching the last child left at her day
care center as a tornado wiped the building off its foundation. A
firefighter who came upon the body gently pulled the toddler from her
arms.
"It makes you just take a breath now," said next-door
neighbor Kenneth Billingsley, who witnessed the scene at what was left
of Ruth's Child Care Center in this logging town of 6,600. "It makes you
pay attention to life."
Widespread Damage And Casualties After Tornadoes Rip Through South
VILONIA,
AR - APRIL 29: A passerby stops to look at damage caused by a tornado
on Sunday evening, on April 29, 2014 in Vilonia, Arkansas. After deadly
tornadoes ripped through the region leaving more than a dozen dead,
Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee are all under
watch as multiple storms are expected over the next few days. (Photo by
Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
...
Bennett,
53, was among at least 34 people killed in a two-day outbreak of
twisters and other violent weather that pulverized homes in half a dozen
states from Iowa to Tennessee. The child's fate was not immediately
known.
As crews in Mississippi and Alabama turned from
search-and-rescue efforts to cleanup, the South braced for a third round
of potentially deadly weather Tuesday. Tornadoes usually strike in the
late afternoon and evening.
One of the hardest-hit areas in Monday
evening's barrage of twisters was Tupelo, Miss., where a gas station
looked as if it had been stepped on by a giant.
Francis Gonzalez,
who also owns a convenience store and Mexican restaurant attached to the
service station, took cover with her three children and two employees
in the store's cooler as the roof over the gas pumps was reduced to
aluminum shards.
"My Lord, how can all this happen in just one second?" she said in Spanish.
On
Tuesday, the whine of chain saws cut through the otherwise still, hazy
morning in Tupelo. Massive oak trees, knocked over like toys, blocked
roads. Neighbors helped one another cut away limbs.
"This does not
even look like a place that I'm familiar with right now," said Pam
Montgomery, walking her dog in her neighborhood. "You look down some of
the streets, and it doesn't even look like there is a street."
AP
Tornado hits Mayflower, Ark.
Travel
trailers and motor homes are piled on top of each other at Mayflower RV
in Mayflower, Ark., Sunday, April 27, 2014.A powerful storm system
rumbled through the central and southern United States on Sunday,
spawning tornadoes.
.....
UPDATE 4-U.S. storm system that killed 16 causes tornado in Mississippi
Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:35am IST
* Tornado touches down in Mississippi
* More than 100 injured
* Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia at risk (Adds Mississippi governor)
By Colin Sims
VILONIA,
Ark., April 28 (Reuters) - A ferocious storm system caused a twister in
Mississippi and threatened tens of millions of people across the U.S.
Southeast on Monday, a day after it spawned tornadoes that killed 16
people and tossed cars like toys in Arkansas and other states.
A
tornado went through Tupelo, Mississippi in the northern part of the
state at about 3 p.m. (1800 GMT), damaging hundreds of homes, downing
power lines and toppling trees, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant told
CNN.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries after six instances of tornadoes touching down in the state.
"It is not over. This is going to be a prolonged storm," Bryant said.
Parts
of Alabama, western Georgia and Tennessee also were at risk as the
storm system that produced the series of tornadoes headed east toward
the Mid-Atlantic states.
Rescue workers, volunteers and victims
have been sifting through the rubble in the hardest-hit state of
Arkansas, looking for survivors in central Faulkner County where a
tornado reduced homes to splinters, snapped power lines and mangled
trees.
Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe said at least 14 people died
statewide in the storm that authorities said produced the first
fatalities of this year's U.S. tornado season. He previously told a news
conference 16 had been killed but later said there was a mistake in
calculation.
Nine of the victims came from the same street
in the town of Vilonia, with a population of about 4,100, where a new
intermediate school set to open in August was heavily damaged by a
tractor trailer blown into its roof. A steel farm shop anchored to
concrete was erased from the landscape.
Beebe told reporters of
the capricious nature of tornadoes. He said a woman died when the door
of her home's reinforced safe room collapsed, while a father and three
daughters survived by seeking shelter in a bathtub that was flipped over
in winds that leveled the house.
One person was killed in neighboring Oklahoma and another in Iowa, state authorities said.
'LONG ROAD TO HEALING'
"Everything is just leveled to the ground," Vilonia resident Matt Rothacher said. "It cut a zig-zag right through town."
Rothacher
was at home with his wife and four children when the tornado passed
through. While his home survived, The Valley Church where he serves as
pastor was flattened.
Read More Here
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PENSACOLA
BEACH, Fla. (AP) — People were plucked off rooftops or climbed into
their attics to get away from fast-rising waters when nearly 2 feet of
rain fell on the Florida Panhandle and Alabama coast in the span of
about 24 hours, the latest bout of severe weather that began with
tornadoes in the Midwest.
On Wednesday, roads were
chewed up into pieces or wiped out entirely and neighborhoods were
inundated, making rescues difficult for hundreds of people who called
for help when they were caught off guard by the single rainiest day ever
recorded in Pensacola.
Boats and Humvees zigzagged
through the flooded streets to help stranded residents. A car and truck
plummeted 25 feet when portions of a scenic highway collapsed, and one
Florida woman died when she drove her car into high water, officials
said.
Near the Alabama-Florida line, water started
creeping into Brandi McCoon's mobile home, so her fiance, Jonathan
Brown, wrapped up her nearly 2-year-old son Noah in a blanket and they
swam in neck-deep water to their car about 50 feet away.
Then, the car was flooded.
"Every which way we turned, there was a big ol' pile of water," she said.
Brown called 911 and eventually a military vehicle picked them up and took them to a shelter.
Kyle
Schmitz was at his Pensacola home with his 18-month-old son Oliver on
Tuesday night when heavy rain dropped during a 45-minute span. He
gathered up his son, his computer and important papers and left.
Read More Here
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