By DPA,
Washington : At least ten people were killed Saturday when a huge tornado swept through the southern US states of Louisiana and Mississippi with 240-km-an-hour winds, officials said.
The lethal twister, with its funnel measuring up to 1.2 km wide, first touched down in Louisiana, stormed across Yazoo City, Mississippi, on the Mississippi River Delta, and pushed eastward across Mississippi.
The tornado was worse than most had ever seen in Mississippi, said the state’s governor, Haley Barbour.
“It stayed on the ground for 150 miles (240 km),” Barbour told CNN. “It never got up off the ground for any appreciable amount of time.”
The storm system that delivered the twister spawned at least another 40 tornadoes across a broad swath of the US south and mid-west, including Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky and Indiana.
On Sunday, the system was expected to carry heavy thunderstorms, hail and a few tornadoes east toward Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, AccuWeather said.
The National Weather service warned of a “particularly dangerous situation”.
Dozens of people were injured.
“Churches have been obliterated. Trees and power lines are down, and rescue crews can’t get in,” Barbour said in broadcast comments.
Greg Flynn of Mississippi Emergency Management services told USA Today that the death included two children.