*** Weekend Tornadoes Rocked Home Like ‘a Sleeping Baby,’ Family of Three, Among 26 Dead, Thousands Left Homeless
*** ‘We Got to Take Cover’: Mississippi Tornado Rocked Home Like ‘a Sleeping Baby,’ Killing Family of Three, Including Teen, Thousands Left Homeless
As residents of the small tight-knit Mississippi community of Silver City try to comb together shattered pieces of their homes shredded as at least 10 confirmed tornadoes struck the state, Alabama and Tennessee over the weekend, they are also coming to grips with the loss of a beloved member of their community.
Robert Lee died while protecting his wife from a failing beam on Friday night. The couple was sheltering in their bathroom when winds from a tornado-spawning storm ripped off the bottom of a trailer home about 50 yards away and cut through the home straight into the bathroom “like a boomerang”, WAPT reports.
Lee’s wife survived but is still hospitalized after undergoing surgery. Everyone in the community knew Lee, according to Humphreys County Circuit Clerk Timaka James-Jones and are shocked by his sudden death.
“Kind person, very bubbly spirit, always outgoing, wonderful teacher, outdoorsman, and just all around great person,” she said.
Lee is among 26 people who reportedly died in the South as the violent storms wreaked havoc in the region, razing homes and leaving thousands without electricity.
Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of Sunday morning in Georgia, where two tigers escaped after a tornado ripped through a zoo.
President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration that same day for parts of Mississippi.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported 2,000 homes in Mississippi were damaged or destroyed. The declaration green lights funding to Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe, and Sharkey counties.
The small number of homes left standing in the mostly Black Mississippi Delta community of Rolling Fork, in Sharkey County, are…
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