Three people were confirmed dead and a dozen more injured as a powerful storm front packing suspected tornadoes smashed into buildings, downed trees and left a trail of destruction across the US south on Monday, authorities said.
One person was reported killed in a suspected tornado strike on a Louisiana home and two others were reported dead after another storm hit near a community about 90km west of the north Alabama city of Huntsville.
Lawrence County Coroner Scott Norwood in Alabama said that the two people killed were husband and wife.
Photo: AP / The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
Authorities said that the injured people included a seven-year-old who was taken to a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.
Authorities did not release names of the victims.
The area was filled with debris and downed trees when first responders arrived.
“It was total chaos,” Norwood told reporters. “We had to make due the best we could.”
The storms prompted numerous tornado watches and warnings on Monday.
Some cities opened shelters as a cold front collided with warmer air over northern Gulf Coast states and temperatures were expected to plunge.
The US National Weather Service said that the severe weather threat could last into yesterday.
The Louisiana death was attributed to an apparent tornado that struck a residential area in Vernon Parish.
Details were not immediately available, Deputy Police Chief Calvin Turner said, adding that authorities feared others could be hurt, as crews were still trying to reach hard-hit areas.
In nearby Alexandria, Louisiana, about 320km northwest of New Orleans, crews cleared roads and restored power late into the night, working in a chilly mist.
Children in a church school were moved to the church before the tornado ripped off the school’s roof, Alexandria Police Department spokesman Corporal Wade Bourgeois said.
Among the hardest-hit spots was the Johnny Downs Sports Complex, which Bourgeois said might have suffered “total damage.”
The complex includes five full-sized soccer fields, more than 10 smaller ones and eight baseball diamonds.
“Fortunately, we have no reports of any deaths or serious injuries,” he said of the Alexandria area.
Meteorologist Donald Jones of the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles, Louisiana, said that it appeared the twister that hit part of Alexandria also struck near the town of DeRidder on an “absolutely ridiculous” path estimated at 101km long.
“I don’t know what our records for the longest total in this area is, but that’s got to be pretty damn close to it,” Jones said.
Storm surveyors would find out whether the tornado went the entire distance along the ground or touched down in spots along the way, he said.
Three people were injured, at least one of them very seriously, by an apparent tornado that hit Amite County, Mississippi, on Monday afternoon, county emergency director Grant McCurley said.
Some houses were destroyed and others severely damaged, he said.
The number was not known on Monday night, because crews could not get to them all — downed trees tangled with power lines blocked county roads and state highways.
Four counties eastward, seven women were taken to a hospital from a heavily damaged group home in Sumrall, Mississippi.
Damage on the men’s side of the Douglas Graham Group Home was less severe than on the women’s side, Lamar County emergency management director James Smith told WDAM-TV.
That tornado cell sprang up in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, and went through Washington Parish on its way into Mississippi, said meteorologist Phil Grigsby of the National Weather Service office in Slidell, Louisiana.
The US Storm Prediction Center reported two other people sustained minor injuries from flying debris after storms moved into Mississippi and multiple trees fell atop homes and vehicles in Edwards, east of Vicksburg.
In Guntown, Mississippi, near Tupelo and about 420km north-northeast of Amite County, an apparent tornado destroyed a church and damaged dozens of homes.
Pastor Carl Estes searched through the debris of Lighthouse Baptist Church for books, photographs or any other salvageable items, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported.
The storm flattened the building, which Estes said was fortunately empty at the time.
School systems in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi dismissed students early and canceled afternoon events and activities.
Forecasters said that tornadoes, hail and winds blowing at 115kph posed the greatest threat as a cold front moved across the region in an easterly direction.
Tornadoes in December are not unusual.
Monday was the 19th anniversary of a southeastern tornado outbreak, which produced a twister that killed 11 people in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Storms on Dec. 1 last year spawned more than two dozen tornadoes in the US midwest.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese