Tornado emergency issued for parts of Mississippi

At least four people were injured in the unincorporated area of Coahoma County known as Bellview, Board of Supervisors President Paul Pearson said.

The mayor said at 12 people were injured, while a “large and extremely dangerous” tornado had been confirmed south west of Centerville, in the neighboring state of Tennessee.

KARD/KTVE’s Kayla Lusby is in MS and reports that a Walmart in Holly Springs was turned into a make shift triage to help care for the wounded.

Jennifer Tipler, an emergency room nurse at Methodist Hospital in Olive Branch, said she was shopping at the Walmart in Holly Springs when the tornado hit. Officials said one victim was male and the other female, but no further details were available.

“An outbreak of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes is forecast today into tonight from the Ohio Valley into the Tennessee and lower Mississippi Valleys”, an announcement from the National Weather Service reads.

Many homes have been damaged in Mississippi due to severe weather and tornadoes, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. She wasn’t sure whether they were out of town.

The Holly Springs Motorsports 1/8-mile drag strip, located in northern MS, suffered catastrophic damage on Wednesday after a large tornado, measured as much as 3/4-mile wide at times, pummeled the city of Holly Springs.

She said the people who lived in the house that was destroyed weren’t home.

“It was on the ground all the way through the county”, said Cole.

“It’s awful that this happened, especially at Christmas”, Jones said. On Christmas Day in 2012, a storm system spawned several tornadoes, damaging homes from Texas to Alabama.

The Lake Charles office said that surveys Wednesday found that both were EF-1 twisters with peak winds of 95 miles per hour. The tornadoes uprooted trees and damaged homes and cars. A 7-year-old was reported to be among the dead.

Once the strong storms clear out, warm temperatures were expected.