Associated Press
Families will mourn four people who died after a tornado with winds above 136 mph tore a 25-mile path across southern Mississippi before dawn Saturday.
The Forrest County coroner identified the dead as Earnest Perkins, 58; Cleveland Madison, 20; David Wayne McCoy, 47 and Simona Cox, 72.
A woman picks up debris from her home, which was destroyed in Saturday’s storms. (Courtesy: Jennifer Lott)
They are among at least 15 confirmed dead in the South as a trove of tornadoes and storms hit the region.
The governor of Georgia has declared a state of emergency in seven counties that have suffered deaths, injuries and severe damage from weekend storms.
Gov. Nathan Deal’s office said Sunday the emergency declaration includes Brooks, Cook and Berrien counties — where 11 people have been confirmed dead in south central Georgia near the Florida state line.
Also included were Atkinson, Colquitt, Lowndes and Thomas counties.
Deal said in a statement that state agencies are “making all resources available” to affected counties and “our thoughts and prayers are with Georgians suffering from the storm’s impact.”
The National Weather Service said Sunday that southern Georgia, northern Florida and the corner of southeastern Alabama could face forceful tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail. Long track tornadoes, which plow on for miles, were also a real risk.
The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center warned on its website of a “dangerous outbreak of tornadoes” on Sunday afternoon and pressed for residents to prepare. Long track tornadoes, somewhat rare and capable of staying on the ground for 20 or more miles, were possible.
There are 4.8 million people under the high risk area; the total area of bad weather in the Southeast, who fall under the slight risk category or worse, is about 38 million people.
Saturday night’s storms destroyed this building. (Courtesy: Jennifer Lott)
In Mississippi, Monica McCarty lost her father — Perkins — who died in the same Hattiesburg trailer park where she and her boyfriend live. Madison, her son, was apparently crushed to death while in bed at her mother’s house where he lived.
Standing amid the tornado’s carnage, McCarty wept as her boyfriend, Tackeem Molley, comforted her.
“They couldn’t get him out of the house. They said he was lying in the bed,” McCarty said of her son.
Molley said he and McCarty were in a trailer when the storm hit. Molley, whose bare foot was bandaged, said he climbed out through a hole in what had either been the trailer’s roof or wall.
“I had a little hole I could squeeze out of,” he said.
The living are beginning to look toward recovery. That task will be steep in Petal, a city of 10,000 people across the Leaf River from the larger Hattiesburg.
Residents of the two cities are no strangers to tornado recovery following a February 2013 tornado that plowed through the area. But Petal Mayor Hal Marx says that for his city, Saturday’s storm was more severe than the one four years ago. Early estimates show more than 300 homes and 30 businesses were damaged in Petal alone. Hundreds of more structures, including almost every building on the campus of William Carey University, were damaged in Hattiesburg.
“It’s devastating,” Marx said Saturday.
Saturday night’s storms destroyed this building. (Courtesy: Jennifer Lott)
The 54-year-old Holland had hoped the Wine Cellar would be a good investment for her retirement.
“We just purchased this business on July 29 and totally remodeled it,” Holland said. “It was all looking really nice, but it’s not anymore.”
By Saturday evening, Holland had tarped the damaged roof. But she’s worried about water damage, looting and collecting insurance. And her three employees may go without work while she rebuilds.
The losses are closer to home for Michelle Kirk, who has lived for five years in a Petal subdivision. She was looking at squatting in a damaged house that may be without power for as long as a week. At dusk Saturday, more than 6,000 people were without power in Forrest and Lamar counties. Utilities were warning that restoration could take days because of damage to transmission lines, even as crews worked into the night.
Early Sunday, the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado near Nashville, Georgia, and officials said more severe weather was possible.
