Trail Of Dead Cows Lays Bare The Destruction Of Southern Tornadoes As Another 11 Die In Powerful Alabama, Mississippi And Tennessee Twisters

April 28, 2014

The destruction being wreaked by a series of tornadoes across the south was laid bare on Monday by images of a horrifying trail of dead and injured farm animals tossed aside by twisters.

The images emerged from Arkansas as another series of tornadoes hit Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee on Monday night, part of a powerful storm system that has threatened large areas of the South with more twisters, severe thunderstorms, damaging hail and flash floods, authorities said.

As the storm swept across a large part of the U.S., the overall death toll was at least 28, with 11 killed in the South on Monday and 17 in the central region on Sunday.

On Tuesday morning, many woke to sirens, tornado warnings, damaged property and downed trees. Forecasts showed Georgia as the next likely target, with 89 counties under a tornado watch until 11 a.m. Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee were hit with the brunt of the storm Monday.

In Mississippi, Republican state Sen. Giles Ward huddled in a bathroom with his wife, four other family members and their dog Monday as a tornado destroyed his two-story brick house and flipped his son-in-law's SUV upside down onto the patio in Louisville.

'For about 30 seconds, it was unbelievable,' Ward said. 'It's about as awful as anything we've gone through.'

The dangerous weather jangled nerves a day after the three-year anniversary of a historic outbreak of more than 60 tornadoes that killed more than 250 people across Alabama on April 27, 2011.

Weather satellites showed tumultuous clouds arcing across much of the South over the course of the day Monday.

The system is the latest onslaught of severe weather a day after a half-mile-wide tornado carved an 80-mile path of destruction through the suburbs of Little Rock, Arkansas, killing at least 15. Tornadoes or severe storms also killed one person each in Oklahoma and Iowa on Sunday.

One victim was a woman who died in the day care centre she owned in Louisville, county Coroner Scott Gregory told The Associated Press late Monday. Authorities were returning to the centre Tuesday.

One seriously injured child was evacuated, said state Rep. Michael Evans, who said authorities don't think any other children were in the centre during the storm.

It was unclear if any children were in the day care centre at the time, said William McCully, acting spokesman for the Winston County Emergency Management Agency.

Earlier Monday, emergency officials attending a news conference with Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said seven people had been killed statewide. State Director of Health Protection Jim Craig said officials were working with coroners to confirm the total. It was unclear if the deaths in Winston County were included in that tally.

In southern Tennessee, two people were killed in a home when a suspected tornado hit Monday night, Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Mike Hall said. The winds destroyed several other homes as well as a middle school in the county that borders Alabama, Hall said.

Along Mississippi Highway 397 on the eastern edge of Louisville early Tuesday, firefighters could be seen picking through the remains of an unidentified number of pulverized mobile homes. Lt. Brian Arnett of the Starkville Fire Department said they were searching for three people who were unaccounted for.

In Kimberly, Alabama, a suspected tornado hit before midnight Monday, tearing the A-shaped roof off a church. On Tuesday morning, the roof sat in a solid piece beside the red brick church.

Across the street, the cinderblock walls from an old fishing supply store were scattered around the gravel parking lot. The building's metal frame remained. Down the road, the fire department was flattened.

Tim Armstrong picked up pieces of splintered trees in his backyard. Armstrong, his wife and their two young daughters were home when the storm struck. He said they were listening to weather reports on television and heard an all-clear for their area.

'Three minutes later my mother-in-law calls, says there's a tornado in Morris,' a nearby town, Armstrong said. 'The power went out, and we went running to the middle of the house.'
They heard the wind roaring and glass shattering as a tree flew through their front door. 'Once I heard that, I knew something was pretty wrong. It was fast. It was so fast.'
The whole thing was over a minute later, he said.

About 100 yards away, 20 firefighters linked hands and waded through an area where woodframe homes had been heavily damaged.

Trees in Louisville had been snapped in half and stripped of their branches, while sheet metal had twisted itself around road signs and tree trunks. Rescue workers stepped gingerly over downed power lines.

The tornado in Louisville also caused water damage and carved holes in the roof of the Winston Medical Center, according to an Associated Press reporter at the centre.

There were about 15 patients in hospital rooms and eight or nine in the emergency room, where evacuations were underway.

'We thought we were going to be OK then a guy came in and said, "It's here right now",' said Dr. Michael Henry, head of the emergency room. 'Then boom ... it blew through.'

One of the deaths in Mississippi involved a woman who was killed when her car either hydroplaned or was blown off a road during the storm in Verona, south of Tupelo, said Lee County Coroner Carolyn Gillentine Green.

In northern Alabama, the coroner's office confirmed two deaths Monday in a twister that caused extensive damage west of the city of Athens, said Limestone County Emergency Director Rita White. White said more victims could be trapped in the wreckage of damaged buildings, but rescuers could not reach some areas because of downed power lines.

Separately, Limestone Commissioner Bill Latimer said he received reports of four deaths in the county from one of his workers. Neither the governor's office nor state emergency officials could immediately confirm those deaths.

Numerous watches and warnings were still active in Alabama, with forecasters warning the severe weather could continue all night.

In Tupelo, Mississippi., a community of about 35,000 in northeastern Mississippi, every building in a two-block area south of U.S. Highway 78 suffered damage, officials told a reporter on the scene.

Some buildings had their roofs sheared off, while power lines had been knocked down completely or bent at 45-degree angles. Road crews were using heavy machinery to clear off other streets.

The Northeast Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo had received 30 patients as of Monday night, four of whom were being admitted with non-life-threatening injuries, said centre spokeswoman Deborah Pugh. Pugh said the other 26 patients were treated for minor injuries and released.

Bryant declared a state of emergency Monday in advance of the storms, which sent emergency officials rushing to put plans in place.

With the wind howling outside and rain blowing sideways, Monica Foster rode out a tornado warning with her two daughters, ages 10 and 12, inside a gas station near Fayette, Ala. One of the girls cried as the three huddled with a station employee in a storage area beside a walk-in cooler.

Foster, who was returning home to Lynn on rural roads after a funeral in Tuscaloosa, said she typically would have kept driving through the deluge.

'I wouldn't have pulled in if I didn't have the two girls,' she said.

In Memphis, Tennessee, officials declared a state of emergency in a county southwest of Nashville because of flash flooding.

Authorities urged people there to seek higher ground after several homes and some business were flooded in Maury County and officials reported worries some school buses couldn't get schoolchildren home over swamped roads.

'If it's unsafe certainly the drivers are not going to chance it,' said a Maury County emergency official, Mark Blackwood, said of the school buses.

The same storm system was heading from Mississippi toward the Alabama line late on Monday.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for most of north Alabama, and the entire state was under a flash flood watch. Tornado warnings began popping up on weather maps in Alabama as soon as storms crossed the Mississippi state line on Monday afternoon.

More than 50 school systems shut down early in Alabama's northern half as a precaution against having children and workers on the road in buses and cars when the storms arrived. Several cities closed municipal offices early.


Horrifying: dead and injured cattle lay in a field near Vilonia, Arkansas on Monday in the wake of a Sunday tornado. At least 28 people have now been killed by the storm system sweeping the U.S.


Awe-inspiring: A funnel cloud is seen crossing the town of Louisville, Mississippi, yesterday


Witness: Storm chaser video photographer Brad Mac films rotating clouds from a tornado storm in Louisville, Mississippi


Fury: Lighting strikes from a TVS (tornadic vortex signature) storm in Tuscaloosa, Alabama


Torrent: A sheet of water cascades down the front of a building in Tuscaloosa, Alabama


A demolished car sits on North Gloster Street across from what remains of a shell gas station in Tupelo, Mississippi, after a tornado touched down on Monday


Devastation: Residents go through the rubble of their home, one day after it was destroyed by a tornado near Vilonia, Arkansas, on Monday


A newly built school was destroyed by one of Sunday's tornados in this aerial photograph near Vilonia, Arkansas


Constance Lambert embraces her dog after finding it alive when returning to her destroyed home in Tupelo, Mississippi, on Monday


Tornados flattened homes and businesses, flipped trucks over on highways and injured numerous people in Mississippi and Alabama on Monday as a massive, dangerous storm system passed over several states in the South


Arc: Lighting strikes from a storm in Columbus, Mississippi


Aftermath: William Higgins sits on a stump outside his grandfather's house after it was destroyed by a tornado yesterday


People walk down Green Street to the corner of North Gloster Street after a tornado went through Tupelo, Mississippi


Gutted: The living room of a house destroyed by a tornado that tore through Mayflower, Arkansas


An 18-wheeler and numerous strips of sheet metal block the southbound lanes of U.S. 49 in Richland, Mississippi


Looming: A massive wedge tornado bears down on the city of Tupelo


Carnage: A man surveys the damage to South Lincoln Elementary School after strong winds ripped through the area


Asunder: A large tornado jumped Mississippi Highway 25 south of Louisville, Mississippi, causing this scene of carnage before hitting the city of Louisville


Grim task: Emergency personnel search the remains of several mobile homes for survivors in Louisville, Mississippi


Continuing fears: Many severe weather warnings remain in place across the South


Collapse: A motel, left, and a restaurant both show damage sustained from a tornado in Tupelo


Ripped up: Uprooted trees are pictured from above after a tornado hit Vilonia, Arkansas


An American flag is mounted on mobile home debris as a searcher looks through the remains of several mobile homes in Louisville, Mississippi


Defiance: A U.S. flag sticks out the window of a damaged hot rod car in a suburban area after a tornado near Vilonia, Arkansas


Pride: Justin Shaw, left, helps Nick Conway erect a make-shift flag pole at his home that was destroyed in Vilonia


Friends and family sift through debris at the home of Daniel Wassom after his house was destroyed by a tornado yesterday. He died trying to shield a family member


The path of a tornado is seen in this aerial image near Vilonia, Arkansas: A ferocious storm system caused a twister in Mississippi and threatened tens of millions of people across the U.S. Southeast on Monday, a day after it spawned tornadoes that killed 16 people and tossed cars like toys in Arkansas and other states


Esmeralda, left and Craig Stanford help a friend clean up his North Gloster Street Texaco gas station and quick stop in Tupelo, Miss, on Monday


Waking up to wreckage: Seventeen year-old Deanna Locke and her siblings including, from left, Charlotte, 13; Drew, 9; and Trinity, 11; examine a downed tree across the street from their home in Tupelo, Mississippi on April 28


Severe damage: destroyed wood can be seen on piled-up Tupelo cars in this photograph


Tossed up: A van was seen on top of other cars in the wake of tornado damage in Tupelo


Several injuries were reported along with extensive damage in the northern Mississippi city of Tupelo, pictured


Responding: Tupelo police are picured in the city responding to the storm's damage. It is not clear how many people had been injured because relief efforts are still underway


Emotional: Sherry Lee, left, and her daughter-in-law Amanda Lee react on April 28 after finding family photos among the ruins of Sherry Lee's Vilonia home in the wake of the twister


Wreckage: Piles of debris are seen in all that's left to homes located off Cemetery Street in Vilonia, Arkansas after the tornado struck down


Disaster: Dino McLaughlin crawls over a pile of debris which is all that's left of his friends storage unit in Vilonia


No fatalities so far have been reported in Tupelo, though there have been others in Arkansas and Oklahoma


Chaos: A travel trailer sits inn the rubble of a house in Mayflower, Arkansas on April 28


Damage shows the path of a tornado through Quapaw, Oklahoma on April 28


Residents and friends sift through debris after a tornado struck the area on Monday in Vilonia, Arkansas


Wreckage: Books are stacked on a water heater after a strong tornado went through the area on April 27 for the second time in three years on April 28, 2014 in Vilonia, Arkansas


Devastation: Tornado damage inside the Mayflower R.V. Park is seen the day after a tornado struck in Mayflower, Arkansas, USA. At least 15 people have been killed in the outbreak of tornados in Arkansas and Oklahoma, according to authorities


Piles of mangled cars and destroyed homes sit along Aspen Creek Drive in the Parkwood Neighborhood off Naylor Road in Vilonia, Arkansas on April 28


Flattened: A row of lightly damages houses, top, face destroyed homes in a Vilonia, Arkansas, neighborhood on April 28


Lost: Bob Van Byssum walks through his home in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Monday April 28


Search: Mayflower RV employee Andrea Jones crouches inside the crushed remains of an RV that belonged to two of her friends searching for anything she might save for them after a tornado destroyed the RV park in Mayflower, Arkansas, on Monday April 28


Clean up: volunteers begin clean up following yesterday's tornado in Quapaw, Oklahoma on Monday, April 28


Hope: Rescue workers and volunteers stand amid debris of homes, one day after they were destroyed by a tornado in Vilonia, Arkansas on April 28


Spoiled: Bottles of condiments lie inside a refrigerator door on the grounds of a destroyed house a day after a tornado hit the town of Vilonia, Arkansas on April 28


Recovery: Justin Shaw, left, helps Nick Conway erect a flag pole at his home that was destroyed by a tornado on April 28 in Vilonia, Arkansas


Embrace: Residents and friends sift through debris after a tornado struck the area on April 28 in Vilonia, Arkansas


Starting over: Homes and businesses are wrecked in downtown Vilonia, Arkansas. The most powerful twister this year carved an 80-mile path of destruction through suburbs north of the state capital of Little Rock, killing at least 16 people


Residents survey the damage in a residential neighborhood in Quapaw, Okla., after it was struck by a tornado on Sunday evening


Messed up: A trail of debris, bottom, leads along the path of a tornado-devastated neighborhood in Vilonia, Arkansas