hello and welcome to bbc news. the governor of mississippi has declared a state of emergency after tornadoes ripped through the us state. at least 25 people were killed. the authorities say the storm left a trail of damage for more than 150 kilometres. president biden has called the storms heartbreaking and vowed federal support. one of the worst affected towns is rolling fork, where entire neighborhoods were flattened to rubble. our north america correspondent, david willis, reports. this is all that remains of the mississippi town of rolling fork. heavy vehicles were picked up and tossed around like toys after the twister touched down, all but wiping this tight knit community off the map. we ve got a new scan coming on as we speak. the storm struck at night, the warnings too late for the residents of rolling fork and nearby silver city. sighs. oh, man. sighs. dearjesus, please help them. around 8:20, we have the tornado sirens going off, warning people to, you know, take co
a tornado has killed at least 23 people in the us state of mississippi, which is located here, in the south of the country. the authorities said the twister left a trail of damage for more than 150 kilometres. one of the worst affected towns is rolling fork, where trees and power lines have been torn down. at one point, debris was being pulled more than 6000 metres into the sky. you can see here the latest pictures of the destruction in rolling fork. debris everywhere, cars on top of what used to be buildings. complete and utter devastation. lots and lots of torn down buildings. as the rescue operation takes place as people start to think about the cleaning operation, many people there will have lost their homes, their livelihoods. and we understand there are some survivors that police and rescue services are still looking for. president biden has called the mississippi storms heartbreaking and vowed federal support. here s our north america correspondent, david willis. doz
and there was a long track tornado that was possibly on the ground continuously for over 50 to 100 miles. we ll have to see if it was consecutive tornadoes, multiple tornadoes or one long track one, but we were heading from south to north, from vicksburg toward rolling fork. and the storm was absolutely electrified. the lightning was pulse lightning so, frequent, strobe lightning, so you could see the whole structure of the storm. and then suddenly, you saw that wedge tornado probably over a quarter to a half mile wide as it was crossing the mississippi river and heading toward the town of rolling fork. and you obviously, you chase storms, you chase tornadoes. but we re just seeing pictures now of the utter devastation left in some of those towns that you must be near to. was it ever touch and go? was it ever scary at any point? well, i ve been doing this for a long time, for about 25 years, so we definitely knew where the tornado was moving. we knew the structure of the tornado. i w
from vicksburg toward rolling fork. and the storm was absolutely electrified. the lightning was pulse lightning, so frequent, strobe lightning. so you could see the whole structure of the storm. and then suddenly you saw that wedge tornado probably over a quarter to a half mile wide as it was crossing the mississippi river and heading toward the town of rolling fork. and you obviously, you chase storms, you chase tornadoes. but we re just seeing pictures now of the utter devastation left in some of those towns that you must be near to. was it ever touch and go? was it ever scary at any point? well, i ve been doing this for a long time, for about 25 years. so, we definitely knew where the tornado was moving. we knew the structure of the tornado. i was scared for the people in the path of this one. and we arrived in the town of rolling forkjust after the tornado came through and saw the dark side that these storms leave behind, and just total devastation. we saw people that were abandoni
i think the mayfield city city of mayfield has been on top of it. they got the personnel, they got the search and rescue teams out. they got dogs out now. we ve seen a lot more rescue efforts. but the damage is pretty much undescribable. and to put that in context, i mean, you chase storms, is this kind of what you do. how does this compare? this is probably one of the worst storms that i have seen. the closest i ve ever been to such a large tornado in my life, and it s like i said, it s really undescribable. there s so much what does it look like? what does it feel like? as you re looking at this biggest tornado you ve seen,