1 dead, nearly 2 dozen injured after multiple tornadoes rip through Mississippi

LOUIN, Mississippi (AP) — Multiple tornadoes ripped through Mississippi overnight, killing one person and injuring nearly two dozen, authorities said Monday.

State emergency workers were still working with counties to assess damage from the storms in which high temperatures and hail in some areas accompanied the tornadoes. The death and injuries were reported by officials in Jasper County, eastern Mississippi.

The small rural town of Louin bore the brunt of the damage. Drone images and photos showed vast tracts of land covered in rubble, decimated houses and vandalized trees. At least one person was carried out of the rubble on a stretcher.

Standing in front of his damaged home Monday, Lester Campbell told The Associated Press that his cousin, George Jean Hayes, 67, is the person who died. Contacted by phone Monday, Jones County Coroner Don Sumrall said Hayes was pronounced dead at 2:18 a.m. of “multi-system trauma.”

Campbell fell asleep in her recliner Sunday night. He woke up around midnight after the lights went out. After she walked to the kitchen to get something from the fridge, the tornado hit.

“It happened so fast,” Campbell said. “It was like the sound of a train, a ‘roar, roar, roar.’”

He dropped to the floor and crawled to his bedroom closet, where his wife had already taken refuge. When he got to the closet, the tornado had passed.

Campbell said she heard calls for help from across the street, where Hayes lived in a mobile home. He left his home to find emergency workers carrying his cousin, her forehead and leg bloodied, into an ambulance. She was conscious and talking about herself when he saw her, but he died before reaching the hospital, she said.

Most of the injured people in Jasper County, including Hayes, were transported to South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel between 2 and 3 a.m., said Becky Collins, a spokeswoman for the facility. About 20 people had bruises and cuts. Most were in stable condition Monday morning.

Eric Carpenter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said an unusually strong jet stream passed through the area. A tornado sprang up near Louin before traveling at least 7 miles (11 kilometers) south to Bay Springs.

Tornadoes generally hit Mississippi in early to mid-spring. Carpenter called the timing of the tornadoes, along with persistent thunder and hail, as well as high temperatures, “a very unusual situation.”

“This is a whole different game here,” Carpenter said. “What we would normally see in March and April, we are seeing in June.”

On March 24, a vicious tornado It ripped a path of destruction through parts of western and northern Mississippi, killing at least 26 and damaging thousands of homes. Some towns in the rural and poverty-stricken Mississippi Delta face a daunting task to rebuild.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday’s tornadoes also hit Rankin County, which borders the capital city of Jackson. Emergency teams were conducting search and rescue missions and assessing damage, deploying drones in some areas because it was impossible to reach them by vehicle due to downed power lines.

On Monday afternoon, another possible tornado struck the southern Mississippi town of Moss Point. The photos showed houses with destroyed roofs and bent power lines. As strong winds and heavy rain covered Jackson County, WLOX-TV reported that eight people were trapped inside a bench in downtown Moss Point. They were later rescued unharmed. The county remained under a flash flood warning Monday.

In a news release Monday, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said more than 49,000 homes in central Mississippi were without power. Tens of thousands of people in Hinds County, the state’s most populous area, were still without power Monday morning after strong winds hit the state early Friday morning.

Reeves said the state is opening command centers and shelters for those displaced by severe weather.

After fleeing her home Monday morning, Campbell returned to survey the damage. He arrived to find half the roof gone, the garage destroyed, and the windows smashed. He felt lucky compared to his neighbors.

“Most of the houses are gone. They are demolished. They’re done,” Campbell said.

___

Goldberg is a staff member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on covert issues. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.