At Least 30 Dead after String of Tornadoes Rip through Southern States
- Published Apr 14, 2020
More than 30 people are dead after severe storms that spawned tornados, ripped through Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Arkansas and Texas earlier this week
According to the Associated Press, a string of storms developed on Easter Sunday, setting loose tornadoes and causing flooding and mudslides.
More than 60 tornadoes are reported to have ripped through the southern states over two days wrecking countless homes and businesses, The Weather Channel reports.
The intensity of the storms caused Alabama’s Governor, Kay Ivey, to temporarily suspend social distancing orders put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus, so that citizens, some of whom were adorned with personal protective equipment, could huddle together in storm shelters to take refuge.
The storms, which raged on into Monday, also dropped at least six inches of rain on the Tennessee Valley and according to the National Weather Service, downed hundreds of trees and handfuls of powerlines across the region.
According to poweroutage.us, by Monday, the storm had initially caused power outages for more than 1.3 million people from Texas to Maine. At the time of this writing, however, only 202,000 people are still without power.
USA Today reports that the two-day spree of tornadoes is the nation’s deadliest tornado outbreak since late April in 2014. From April 25 to April 28, 2014, tornadoes in central and southern U.S. claimed the lives of 35 people. At the time of this writing, 34 people are reported to have died in the tornadoes earlier this week, Storm Prediction Center reports.
Mississippi’s Governor, Tate Reeves, said in a statement that 12 Mississippians were killed in the storms which he describes “as bad or worse than anything we’ve seen in a decade.”
“We are used to tornadoes in Mississippi,” he added, “No one is used to this.”
The strongest twister in Mississippi is reported to be an EF-4 tornado that reached winds of up to 170 mph.
Tennessee and South Carolina both endured EF-3 tornadoes while Louisiana and South Carolina were hit by EF-2 tornadoes.
In South Carolina, nine people are reported to have died as a result of the storms. An additional eight people were killed in Georgia, while three perished in Tennessee and several others were killed in Arkansas and North Carolina after being trapped under a fallen tree and stuck inside of a collapsed building, respectively.
Clean-up efforts are underway.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Sean Rayford/Stringer
Kayla Koslosky is the former Editor of ChristianHeadlines.com. She has B.A. degrees in English and History and previously wrote for and was the managing editor of the Yellow Jacket newspaper. She has also contributed to IBelieve.com and Crosswalk.com.
