Storms sweep over Deep South with rain, wind, floods; 1 dead
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A powerful winter storm raked the Deep South on Thursday with high winds, rain and floods that killed one person and injured several more across a dozen states. Rescue crews repeatedly pulled people from cars that got stuck in high water, but couldn't reach a person whose vehicle disappeared into a rain-swollen creek.
The storm front destroyed mobile homes in Mississippi and Alabama, caused mudslides in Tennessee and Kentucky and flooded communities that shoulder waterways across the Appalachian region.
In Harlan County, Kentucky, two mobile homes floated away as dozens of families were evacuated amid rising water, authorities said.
“Its a very bad situation that continues to worsen by the hour,” said Harlan County Judge Executive Dan Mosley. He said about 20 people were sheltering in the Harlan Baptist Church, after being taken from their homes.
The rain kept falling over a path of splintered trees and sagging power lines that stretched from Louisiana into Virginia. School districts cancelled classes in state after state as the weather rolled through.
One person was killed and another was injured as high winds destroyed two mobile homes near the town of Demopolis, Alabama, the Storm Prediction Center reported. The winds left roadsides in that area strewn with pieces of plywood and insulation, broken trees and twisted metal. The National Weather Service was checking the site for signs of a tornado.
In Pickens, Mississippi, the ceiling caved in and furniture flew around 64-year-old Emma Carter, but she considers herself lucky after surviving another apparent tornado, which decimated her mobile home. A weather service crew was headed there as well to study the damage.
Carter, her two daughters and two grandsons were inside the home when...