10 killed as tornado strikes rural Mississippi countryside
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At least 10 people were killed when the tornado ripped through the rural Mississippi countryside, but the stories told by survivors on Sunday show how much higher the toll could have been.
Hundreds of homes also were damaged in the storm, which carved a path of devastation from the Louisiana line to east-central Mississippi, and at least three dozen people were hurt. Rescuers spread out Sunday to find anyone who might be trapped, while survivors returned to demolished homes to salvage what they could and bulldoze the rubble.
(...) Tornadoes also were reported in Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama. The storm system tracked northeastward, downing trees in northwest Georgia early Sunday before moving offshore.
Mississippi's Choctaw County suffered the most confirmed deaths: five, including a baby and two other children.
(...) Gov. Barbour estimated at least 100 houses in Yazoo County alone had severe damage but said his estimate could rise later. Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Greg Flynn said Sunday that at least three dozen people were hurt and nearly 200 homes damaged in Attala, Holmes, Monroe and Warren Counties. Officials were still working to assess the total damage in Choctaw and Yazoo counties.
Speaking in the parking lot of a heavily damaged restaurant in Yazoo City, Barbour said emergency crews would be going to isolated houses in rural areas they had been unable to reach in the chaotic hours after Saturday's storm.
Hundreds were without electricity while others were left homeless, sifting through what little remained of their homes and bulldozing the rest. Volunteers poured into the hardest-hit areas with four-wheelers, chain saws and heavy equipment to chop up downed trees and haul away the wreckage as the cleanup began.