Tornado leaves long path of destruction in South

HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. — The tornado — dark, wide and roaring — had already raced through about a half-dozen counties by the time it arrived here in Marshall County on Wednesday night, when it would take the first lives on its long rampage and leave this area with the smell of freshly splintered pine trees and a sense of urgency.

The breadth of the damage in Holly Springs and elsewhere became clear only at sunrise, after a day of storms that killed at least 10 and ravaged the rural South. In Mississippi, where homes and businesses were devastated and rescuers were searching for survivors, Gov. Phil Bryant declared an emergency and federal officials sought to determine whether a single tornado had remained on the ground for more than 130 miles.

“I have neighbors, but I don’t know where they’re at because there’s nothing where their houses used to be,” said Cedric Cannon, 50, as he stood alone near an American Red Cross relief truck in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart.

Bryant, who was expected to visit the region Thursday, said in a statement that, “Mississippians are resilient in difficult times, and we will meet this challenge head on for those that are in need.”

Storms lashed the South for most of the day Wednesday, but the National Weather Service said that it was assessing the strength and duration of one tornado that appeared to have been particularly long lasting. Survey teams, which might release more detailed findings later Thursday, were helping determine whether the tornado remained on the ground for the entirety of its path.

“To have long-track tornadoes in December in the Memphis forecast area is an unusual event,” said Jonathan Howell, a meteorologist in the Weather Service’s Memphis office. “We typically don’t have tornadoes of that intensity that impact the area, but we’re dealing with this unusually warm weather pattern and all of the ingredients came together to support that.”

The state authorities in Mississippi reported six deaths; Tennessee officials said three people had died; and Arkansas officials said one person was killed early Wednesday. Scores of people were injured, especially in north Mississippi, where officials in Benton and Marshall counties said there was significant damage, including destroyed homes and businesses, uprooted trees and debris-strewn roads.

“We’re still in response mode,” Brett Carr, a spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said Thursday. “We’re still supporting the local governments with search and rescue for those who are missing. We want to make sure everyone is accounted for, and life safety is the No. 1 priority right now.”

Carr said that at least three people were missing in Mississippi, and that damage assessments were still being done after the storms tore across the state Wednesday evening.

“In north Mississippi, where there’s a lot of heavy damage, they crossed through that area right at dark,” he said. “Our groups had a hard time doing damage assessments at night.”

The storm caused havoc on the highways just ahead of the Christmas holiday.

The Weather Service and television meteorologists had cautioned throughout Wednesday that the South was under threat. Around midday Wednesday, government forecasters turned to a benchmark they had not used in more than 18 months, an advisory for a “particularly dangerous situation” involving tornadoes, and warned that the atmosphere was “conducive to long-track supercells with significant tornadoes and damaging winds as the primary hazards.”

“The system had this signature appearance that you see in the transition seasons,” said Greg Carbin, the warning coordination meteorologist at the Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. “What this system had was copious amounts of moisture and warm air across the Deep South, the Mississippi Valley. But at the same time, the upper levels of the atmosphere were more characteristic of winter.”

Officials had issued tornado warnings in more than a dozen states on Wednesday.