Severe weather swept across the South Tuesday, spawning at least five reported tornadoes that killed at least four people, injured at least 50 others and destroyed homes.
Mississippi was particularly hard hit. All four reported deaths took place in the state - two in Marion County and two in Jones County.
"If Tuesday's storm deaths prove to all have been caused by tornadoes, it will become the deadliest December tornado event in Mississippi since 38 died in the Vicksburg tornado of Dec. 5, 1953," said Nick Wiltgen, weather.com senior meteorologist.
In all, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center relayed a total of 69 storm reports across the Deep South on Tuesday.
Most of those were wind damage reports, but there were 14 tornado reports as well. Keep in mind that those are just reports, not confirmed tornadoes, and the final tornado count is likely to be fewer than 14.
Mississippi
Gov. Phil Bryant issued a state of emergency Tuesday for Marion and Jones counties, along with other parts of the state affected by severe weather.
At around 2:30 p.m. local time, strong circulation with a debris signature was spotted on radar moving toward the town of Columbia, in Marion County.
The reported tornado damaged businesses, flipped cars and toppled power lines onto U.S. 98, closing the road for several hours. Two people were killed, one in a trailer park, the other in a strip mall, the Associated Press reports.
Another two people were dead in the aftermath of severe weather in Jones County, according to Jones County Emergency Management Agency.
Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge said the two were killed when a
mobile home was destroyed, WAFB-TV said.
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