Rescue crews fanned out across isolated parts of Mississippi Sunday morning in a search for survivors of a devastating tornado that tore through the state and killed 10 people, including three children.
Deputy state fire marshal James Jackson said crews resumed search and rescue operations at daylight in Yazoo City, one of the areas hardest hit by the tornado.
High winds tore the roofs of houses and buildings across Yazoo County. Gov. Haley Barbour, who grew up in the area, said the tornado caused "utter obliteration" in the hilly countryside.
According to Barbour, emergency services workers will travel to isolated homes they could not reach in the hours after the tornado hit Saturday afternoon.
Barbour said he believes at least 100 houses in Yazoo County suffered severe damage, but admitted that number could rise significantly.
By early Sunday, meteorologists had yet to determine whether a single tornado or several tornados moved through the area, downing trees and ripping houses from their foundations.
The same storm system sent heavy thunderstorms rolling through northern Alabama and Georgia early Sunday. High winds knocked down trees and damaged buildings in both states.
The storm began just outside the Mississippi state line in Louisiana, where a tornado destroyed 12 homes, as well as warehouses at a chemical plant.
The storm then moved eastward into Mississippi and Yazoo County, where it killed four people. The tornado killed one person in Holmes County, while another five were killed, including three children, in Choctaw County to the northeast.
Jim Pollard, a spokesperson for the American Medical Response ambulance service, said four patients from Yazoo County were airlifted to area hospitals, while another 20 were taken by car or ambulance to local medical centres. At least four people are in critical condition, he said.
Downed power lines left thousands of residents across Mississippi without electricity, while blocked roadways kept them in their homes.
Yazoo County resident Josiah Moton and his girlfriend Morgan Hayden were at home when the sky darkened and the winds picked up. When Moton went outside to move his care, "the wind was coming so string it tried tot tote me away," he said.
The two huddled in a bathtub as their house was completely destroyed. Despite the destruction around them, they escaped the storm uninjured.
How awful! Hope everyone is OK.
