Massive cleanup efforts got under way Monday after several tornadoes ripped through the South, killing at least 12 people — 10 in Mississippi — and leaving a swath of devastation in the region, from Louisiana to Alabama.
A 3-month-old baby and two other children were among the fatalities. Dozens more were injured, and scores of homes leveled.
The tornado devastated neighborhoods from Mississippi’s central western border with Louisiana northeastward to Alabama. It sheared roofs off houses, overturned cars, snapped hundreds of trees and plunged large parts of the state in darkness as it toppled power lines.
Five of the dead were from Choctaw County in north-central Mississippi; four were from Yazoo County, north of Jackson; and one was from Holmes County, also in north-central Mississippi, said spokesman Greg Flynn of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
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The storm roared on into Alabama, where authorities said it killed two people — including a man whose car hit a tree in Etowah County, said Yasamie Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.
In Walker County, a woman died after hitting her head while entering a storm shelter, Richardson said.
The National Weather Service on Monday gave the tornado that ravaged parts of Mississippi a preliminary rating of speeds of up to 170 mph. Yazoo was one of the hardest-hit counties.
