Tornadoes hit South, killing 8

Associated Press

Deadly thunderstorms swept across the lower Mississippi Valley Saturday, flattening homes and poultry farms and ripping down power lines. At least eight deaths were blamed on the storms, and dozens of people were injured.

The scream of warning sirens woke Roosevelt Greenwood before dawn Saturday in Madison, Miss., and he crowded with his wife and four children into a tiny hall closet.

“As soon as I closed the door to the closet, the tornado hit. It took the roof off,” said Greenwood, 33. “Where my 2-year-old son had been lying, the wall caved in on the crib.”

No one in the family was hurt, but the tornado that ripped through town killed one person and injured at least 21 others, including a pregnant woman who was hospitalized in critical condition.

The house next to the Greenwoods was blown away entirely, leaving only a car where the garage had stood. “It’s definitely by the grace of God that we’re here,” Greenwood said.

Three other people were killed early Saturday in northwestern Mississippi’s Delta region, including Hattie Robinson in the tiny town of Sledge.

“It blew her house clean across the road,” said Sledge Mayor Lorenzo Windless.

Tornadoes also struck parts of Alabama on Saturday. One injured at least 11 people, one critically, and damaged businesses in downtown Haleyville. “There’s debris everywhere,” said restaurant operator Venita Armstrong in Haleyville.

Four deaths and additional injuries were reported late Friday in Arkansas.

The severe weather was part of a line of thunderstorms that spanned the Ohio and Mississippi valleys from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico as a cold front swept through the region. The National Weather Service posted tornado warnings Saturday in Mississippi, western Kentucky and Alabama, and severe storm warnings were issued for parts of those states and Tennessee.

Storms earlier had passed through parts of Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas.

Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove toured damaged areas of Madison, where dozens of homes were ripped from their foundations. Utilities officials said about 22,000 customers were without power in central and eastern Mississippi.

In southeast Arkansas, two deaths and heavy damage were reported in Wilmot, a town of about 1,500, and many people were without electricity, said Jennifer Gordon, spokeswoman for the state Emergency Management Department.

In northwestern Arkansas, one death was reported late Friday at Hunt, which may have been struck by a tornado, said weather service meteorologist John Lewis. Arkansas’ fourth weather-related death was a traffic fatality on a rain-slickened highway, the State Police reported.

At least seven homes were destroyed in the Searcy area in east-central Arkansas, 15 were damaged and three people were injured, authorities said. Power also was out in much of that area, Gordon said.

Elsewhere, high winds late Friday destroyed a house in Mount Vernon, Mo., and three people suffered minor injuries when their vehicle overturned, authorities said. Wind and hail nearly an inch in diameter also damaged buildings elsewhere in Missouri.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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