Mississippi, a state in the south of the United States, is only beginning to assess the extent of the devastation on Saturday, after the passage of tornadoes the day before which killed at least 25 people.
“It’s a tragedy,” said state governor Tate Reeves on Twitter, referring to “devastating damage” after the tornadoes passed through Mississippi for more than 150 km from west to east. .
“The scale of loss and damage is evident in all affected areas today,” he said after visiting Silver City, one of the hardest hit towns.
The death toll stands at 25 dead and dozens injured, according to the Mississippi State Emergency Services (MSEMA). Four missing persons “have been found”, they added.
Search and rescue teams are on the job to find victims.
US President Joe Biden spoke in a press release of the “heartbreaking” images, and stressed that the federal state would do “everything it can to help”, “as long as it takes”.
In Rolling Fork, a town of some 2,000 people in western Mississippi, images Saturday morning showed entire rows of houses torn from their meager foundations, streets littered with debris and cars flipped on their roofs. Two semi-trailers were also piled up on top of each other.
Trees were uprooted and pieces of metal wrapped around the trunks while for one house, still standing but wobbly, the floor collapsed.
– “My city no longer exists” –
“Almost everything has been swept away” in the city, Patricia Perkins, a 61-year-old resident, told AFP by telephone. “Most of the shops were razed” by the tornado, says this employee of a tool store.
Aaron Rigsby, tornado hunter, said he arrived on Friday evening and heard “screams of people trapped in the rubble, calling for help”.
“There was a lady who didn’t manage to get to safety in time and was mowed down, the roof of her house falling on her,” he told AFP by telephone. “I managed to free her from the rubble” and seek help when she was injured in the leg, he adds.
Another lady found herself “stuck between her sofa, pieces of roofing, and a fridge”, he said again, speaking of the “same scenes across the town”.
On CNN, the mayor of Rolling Fork, Eldridge Walker, said: “my town no longer exists”. According to the city councilor, several victims were located and removed from the debris of their homes, to be taken to hospitals and treated.
“Houses that have been torn away can be replaced, but you cannot replace a life,” said Eldridge Walker. “The losses will be felt in these cities forever,” Governor Tate Reeves tweeted, asking to pray for the victims and their families.
– A death in Alabama –
According to ABC, at least 13 people died in Sharkey County, along with three in neighboring Carroll County and two others in Monroe County.
Separately, a Silver City, Humphreys County police officer reported one person dead to ABC.
In Alabama, a neighboring state of Mississippi, the thunderstorms were also particularly intense and a man died after the overturning of his trailer, announced the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office.
The “priority at this stage” is to ensure “the safety of living people and to locate people to verify that they are safe”, said Malory White of MSEMA.
Tornadoes, a meteorological phenomenon as impressive as they are difficult to predict, are common in the United States, especially in the center and south of the country.
As of December 2021, around 80 people had lost their lives after tornadoes hit Kentucky.