Emergency crews in several US states assessed the damage this morning after more than 20 tornadoes left a deadly path of destruction days before Christmas.
At least eight people were killed as storms and tornadoes hit the central and southern United States, from Illinois and Indiana to Tennessee and Mississippi. A large tornado struck a 100-mile stretch of northern Mississippi, demolishing or damaging dozens of homes and other buildings in a six-county area, authorities told Reuters.
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Two fatalities were reported in Tennessee, while four people died in Mississippi; another 40 people were injured. A 7-year-old boy was among the dead in Mississippi after a storm knocked over the vehicle in which he was a passenger on a road in Holly Springs.
Michaela Remus, 18, of Pope County, Arkansas died after powerful winds knocked over a tree that fell onto a home she was in. Remus’s 18-month-old sister was trapped inside the same building, but was rescued alive before being taken to a local hospital, the Weather Channel reported.
Video shot by a motorist in the Mississippi town of Como, southwest of Holly Springs, shows a tornado touching down in the distance. Another shows the same tornado and stormy weather toppling a semi-truck on a highway in Panola County.
“The devastation is just unreal,” Master Sergeant Ray Hall, a spokesman for the Mississippi Highway Patrol, told CNN.
About 90 miles southwest of Holly Springs, another tornado hit Clarksdale, Mississippi and reportedly touched down for upwards of 10 minutes. Emergency workers told Reuters that the storm flattened an entire subdivision in the town.
“I’m looking at some horrific damage right now,” Clarksdale Mayor Bill Luckett said. “Sheet metal is wrapped around trees; there are overturned airplanes; a building is just destroyed.”
Emergency crews in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee were still searching for several people reported missing and assessing damage from the destructive winds on Thursday morning. Isolated severe thunderstorms were expected to continue Thursday from Louisiana to eastern Pennsylvania, the National Weather Service said.
The stormy weather scrambled holiday plans for travelers throughout the country on Wednesday. Airline passengers saw their flights delayed and cancelled across the busy northeast due to heavy rains, while on the West Coast, San Francisco and San Jose international airports also reported delays and cancellations.
Meanwhile, northeastern states are expected to record unseasonably warm temperatures this week. Forecasts indicate that New York City will be warmer than Los Angeles on Christmas Day.
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