The death of a tornado confirmed as violent storms hit the south

COLUMBUS, Miss – The weekend storms swept parts of the southeast, killing and injuring people while a tornado ripped through a small Mississippi shopping district and the Torrential rains have fueled a growing flood threat.

A woman was killed when a tornado shot down in Columbus, Mississippi, and a man died after entering floodwaters in Tennessee, officials said.

Columbus Mayor Robert Smith Sr. said Ashley Glynell, 41, Pounds of Tupelo and her husband were renovating a house on Saturday night. When the husband went to get them to eat, the building collapsed and killed him.

Smith said 12 other people were injured, but the injuries did not seem to be major. City spokesman Joe Dillon said the tornado had also seriously damaged a school and two buildings at the community center.

In Knox County, Tennessee, officials said one man died after his vehicle was submerged by high water.

The tornado Saturday afternoon in Columbus was confirmed by radar, said meteorologist Anna Wolverton of the National Meteorological Service in Jackson. She told the Associated Press that experts would be traveling Sunday in the city of about 23,000 residents of eastern Mississippi to assess the intensity of the tornado.

Reverend Steve Blaylock told the first Pentecostal church in Columbus that the building was "a total loss", with a recessed wall, holes in the roof and considerable water damage. He and his followers tried to save what they could the next morning from the storm. But he said that they were still organizing a Sunday prayer service and even had a scheduled baptism, using a portable baptismal basin.

"We will rebuild, we have a good church here," Blaylock said. "It will be a testimony of God."

Residents of a street on the east side of Columbus were out early Sunday morning with chainsaws, cleaning the branches of many trees broken or uprooted during the storm. Metal cladding and roofing materials were scattered in the vicinity of older homes. While the houses remained generally upright, the hangars and outbuildings were mostly demolished.

Lee Lawrence, who said he had sold used cars in Columbus for decades, told the AP that four buildings in his parking lot had been destroyed. He said that trees had rolled over the vehicles and that the windows of the cars had been blown.

Lawrence said that he was at home preparing to take 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.

"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 and electricity was cut off in the area.

Elsewhere in the south, homes, highways, parks and bridges were flooded or decommissioned during 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 area, officials said.

Officials said a landslide had destroyed a subway restaurant in Signal Mountain, Tennessee. No injuries were reported.

In West Virginia, authorities have evacuated 11 families from low-lying areas in the south of the state because of flooding caused by heavy rains. The strong wind warnings remained in effect Sunday for much of the state. WCHS-TV reports that more than 21,000 Appalachian Power customers were out of electricity on Sunday afternoon.

In Bruce, Mississippi, rivers erupted and sudden floods poured into homes and businesses. According to media reports, officials in Grenada, Mississippi, have declared the state of emergency locally after flooding dozens of streets and houses. A 9 km 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 on the north side of Oxford and a subdivision, was under threat.

Weather authorities said the impact of the storm was spreading from eastern Arkansas to northern Georgia and beyond. The governor of Alabama has declared the state of emergency in several counties hoping to speed up his recovery in case of damage.

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. The 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.

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Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz of Memphis, Tennessee and Jay Reeves of Birmingham, Alabama contributed to this story, along with photographer Rogelio Solis and freelance photographer Jim Lytle working in Columbus, Mississippi.