Powerful weekend storms roared through the southeastern US, killing 18 people as violent weather left a trail of destruction, authorities said.
Families in Dougherty County in the state of Georgia huddled on the side of a road on Sunday, surveying the wrath of a storm that destroyed mobile homes and downed trees, according to video footage posted by county commission chairman Chris Cohilas.
“This is absolutely devastating,” Cohilas said in the video uploaded to Facebook. “It looks like a nuclear bomb went off. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Photo: EPA
The county’s emergency management agency tweeted that shelters were being set up for displaced residents.
At least 14 people had died in south-central Georgia over the weekend, according to the state’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency.
Five were still missing, according to Adel Mayor Buddy Duke, amid a scene of flattened houses, and trees and cars thrown in a heap like toys.
Four others died and 20 were injured on Saturday morning by a tornado that swept through southern Mississippi, according to that state’s emergency services agency.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday told reporters that he had offered his condolences to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, calling the storms “vicious and powerful and strong.”
“On behalf of all of us, condolences,” Trump said, adding that Florida and Alabama had also been impacted.
Deal had declared a state of emergency in Georgia for seven south-central counties.
He said in a statement that the state would request federal assistance in the storms’ aftermath.
“These storms have resulted in loss of life, numerous injuries and extensive property damage,” Deal said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Georgians suffering from the storm’s impact.”
“I urge all Georgians to exercise caution and vigilance in order to remain safe and prevent further loss of life or injuries,” he said.
The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) tweeted it had issued “only the 3rd High Risk (tornado) threat issued since 2000 that includes FL. Be safe.”
FEMA said that it had sent liaison officers to Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida “to support response activities and additional teams are on alert.”
Tornado activity in the US historically has been at lower levels in January and February.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported extensive damage in some parts of Georgia, with numerous felled trees and downed power lines in several counties.
Authorities said that more severe weather could threaten parts of the Carolinas, southern Georgia and much of Florida with strong damaging gusts, large hail and a risk of tornadoes.
The agency said that tornadoes at night were “particularly dangerous” because they are often fast-moving and difficult to see.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion