1 killed in the Mississippi tornado as storms flood the south

COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) – A person was killed Saturday afternoon by a tornado in a shopping district in the small town of Columbus, Mississippi.

The tornado struck around 17 hours. in eastern Mississippi and confirmed by radar, said meteorologist Anna Wolverton of the National Meteorological Service in Jackson. She told The Associated Press on the phone that a team would be traveling Sunday in the city of about 23,000 residents to measure the intensity of the tornado.

Cindy Lawrence, director of the Lowndes County Emergency Management Agency, confirmed to NBC News that the tornado had killed at least one person and that a dozen people had been injured without being hospitalized.

Lee Lawrence, who said selling used cars in Columbus for decades, told AP that four buildings in his parking lot had been destroyed. He added that trees had rolled over the vehicles and that the windows of the car had been blown. And he said that he had no idea of ​​the seriousness of his old car collection.

He said that he was at home taking a bath when the storm hit.

"The wind suddenly became so violent and it was raining so hard that you could barely see through the door and I heard a roar, obviously he approached," he said. said by addressing AP in a telephone interview. He stated that someone called him shortly afterwards about the damage done to his business and that he was rushed.

"It will be a start-up agreement," Lawrence said. "I can not say that it will come back better or stronger, but we will come back."

A photographer working for the AP in Columbus said that some of Lawrence's old-fashioned field cars were parked amidst the damage and that a nearby pet grooming company appeared to be essentially consisting of batteries twisted metal. A pipe was forcefully thrown into a printing press and what appeared to be a vacant commercial building nearby seemed badly damaged.

Firefighters and law enforcement officers cordoned off the area, making it difficult to determine the extent of the damage after dark. Power has also been obscured in the region.

Elsewhere in the south, homes, highways, parks and bridges have been flooded or decommissioned by heavy rains and storms. According to media reports, rescue operations in the water have occurred in some counties in central Tennessee. Warnings and flash flood watches have remained in place throughout the south and a Mississippi community has reported an abundant hail.

Interstate 40, near the Tennessee line with North Carolina, was closed by a landslide, one of dozens of roads and highways closed in the southern region, officials said.

Tennessee Department of Transportation spokesman Mark Nagi said on Twitter that a "large-scale detour" was in place, with traffic being diverted to Interstate 81 and the Interstate 26.

In Bruce, Mississippi, rivers erupted and sudden floods poured into homes and businesses. According to news organizations, the authorities in Grenada, Mississippi, have declared the state of local emergency after dozens of streets and houses flooded. A nine-kilometer stretch of the Natchez Trace Parkway was closed in Mississippi after the water covered part of the road.

The National Weather Service had issued a sudden flood warning in northwestern Lafayette County, Mississippi, after emergency officials announced that a local dam was at risk. # 39; collapse.

Meteorologist Kole Fehling said that emergency officials have reported that the dam at Audubon, which blocks a stream north of Oxford and a subdivision, has been threatened. Emergency management officials were not immediately available to comment on Saturday.

High waters have also threatened real estate in Tennessee, which, like many other areas of the South, have been soaked by several inches of rain over the past week. Officials said a landslide had destroyed a subway restaurant in Signal Mountain, Tennessee. No injuries were reported.

Meteorological officials said the storm system was threatening areas ranging from eastern Arkansas to Alabama in the south. The Governor of Alabama has declared an emergency situation in several counties in order to speed up his recovery.

Kentucky announced Friday the closure of US bridge 51 on the Ohio River to Cairo, Illinois, due to flooding on the southern approach. The bridge, which carries 4,700 vehicles a day, will probably remain closed until Thursday or longer.

Near Jamestown, Kentucky, the Corps of Engineers of the Army announced that it was increasing releases from the Wolf Creek Dam on the Cumberland River. Areas downstream of the dam, from Rowena to Burkesville, may be affected by the floods, officials said.

The Ohio River in Cairo is expected to reach its highest level ever on Sunday and remain so high next week. The Tennessee River, near Savannah, Tennessee, is also expected to reach record levels.