Joe Biden Declares Emergency After Deadly Tornado Hit Mississippi
- AP Photo/Julio Cortez.
VIVA – President of the United States, Joe Biden on early Sunday, declared an emergency for Mississippi, making federal funding available to Carrol, Humphreys, Monroe, and Sharkey counties, the areas hardest hit Friday night by a huge and deadly tornado that ripped through the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest regions of the US.
As information, this disaster caused at least 26 people were killed in Mississippi and Alabama as the massive storm ripped through several towns on its hour-long path. Dozens of others were injured.
Search and recovery crews on Sunday resumed the daunting task of digging through the debris of flattened and battered homes, commercial buildings, and municipal offices after hundreds of people were displaced.
As information, FEMA Coordinating Officer John Boyle has been appointed to oversee federal recovery operations. Following Biden's declaration, federal funding can be used for recovery efforts including temporary housing, home repairs, loans covering uninsured property losses, and other individual and business programs, the White House said in a statement.
The twister flattened entire blocks, obliterated houses, ripped a steeple off a church, and toppled a municipal water tower.
Tornado dan badai besar memporak porandakan Mississippi, Amerika Serikat.
- AP Photo/Emily Wagster Pettus.
Even with recovery just starting, the National Weather Service warned of a risk of more severe weather Sunday — including high winds, large hail, and possible tornadoes — in eastern Louisiana, south-central Mississippi, and south-central Alabama.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell traveled to Mississippi Sunday to evaluate the damage.
“In disasters like this, there are no strangers: everyone comes together, everyone is a neighbor, everyone is family. They cannot do it alone, and the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA will be here as long as it takes. The entire federal family is here to support these communities,” Mayorkas explained on Sunday.
The tornado devastated a swath of the 2,000-person town of Rolling Fork, killing 13 people, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars on their sides, and toppling the town's water tower. Other parts of the Deep South were digging out from the damage caused by other suspected twisters.
Sammy Jackson, a resident said that he was inside his house when the tornado hit, "There was a big bang, it lifted us into the air, threw us against the wall. A lot of debris hit us." He said.
In addition to the death toll and damage, the disaster also caused power outages in Mississippi and surrounding states, leaving thousands without electricity.
