Mississippi Tornado Kills 23, Leaves Four Missing and Dozens Injured

A powerful tornado killed at least 23 people and four more are missing after a storm ripped across Mississippi on Friday night.

The storm left dozens injured and destroyed buildings across the state, emergency officials said.
Search and rescue teams from local and state agencies have been deployed to help victims, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency posted on Twitter early Saturday.

Gov. Tate Reeves said he was headed to Sharkey County after completing a briefing with the state’s disaster response team. “Devastating damage—as everyone knows. This is a tragedy,” he said.

“We can confirm 23 dead, dozens injured, 4 missing due to last night’s tornadoes,” the agency said. The full damage from the storm has yet to be tallied, it said.

“Unfortunately, these numbers are expected to change,” the agency said.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol division based in Greenwood said on Twitter that Carroll, Montgomery and Humphreys Counties were hit by the storm. The agency shared pictures of a flattened building in Silver City, Miss., and warned people to stay off the roads as emergency crews work to clean up debris.

In Silver City, “it’s just about total destruction. I’m going to say 95% destruction,” said Royce Steed, director of emergency management in Humphreys County.
“We’ve got a whole lot of folks in the hospital,” Mr. Steed said, along with three storm fatalities.

Rolling Fork, Miss., a town of approximately 1,800 people in Sharkey County, about 80 miles northwest of Jackson, also suffered extensive damage.

Three people died in Carroll County, according to coroner Mark Stiles. The victims were family members sheltering together in a double-wide trailer when the tornado struck, he said.

About 14,000 people in Mississippi were without power Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us. Approximately 19,000 were without power in Alabama.

The tornado began as heavy rain Friday afternoon across Arkansas and the Ohio Valley, and then turned into what’s known as a supercell, a particularly powerful type of rotating thunderstorm, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard.

The storm’s intensity grew as it tracked across Louisiana and hit the Mississippi border, Mr. Chenard said. The first report of a tornado came in around 8 p.m. on Friday and reports of activity from western to central Mississippi followed for the next two hours, he said.

Gov. Tate Reeves said he was headed to Sharkey County after completing a briefing with the state’s disaster response team. “Devastating damage—as everyone knows. This is a tragedy,” he said.

Three people died in Carroll County, according to coroner Mark Stiles. The victims were family members sheltering together in a double-wide trailer when the tornado struck, he said.

About 14,000 people in Mississippi were without power Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us. Approximately 19,000 were without power in Alabama.

The tornado began as heavy rain Friday afternoon across Arkansas and the Ohio Valley, and then turned into what’s known as a supercell, a particularly powerful type of rotating thunderstorm, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard.

The storm’s intensity grew as it tracked across Louisiana and hit the Mississippi border, Mr. Chenard said. The first report of a tornado came in around 8 p.m. on Friday and reports of activity from western to central Mississippi followed for the next two hours, he said.