Biden tours Mississippi tornado wreckage as more storms threaten US

US President Joe Biden has toured the wreckage of a major storm that hit Mississippi last week, as large swathes of the United States braced for more extreme weather, including tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.

Speaking from the hard-hit Mississippi community of Rolling Fork, Biden said on Friday that the federal government would cover for 30 days the full cost of the state’s emergency measures in response to the storm on March 24.

Twenty-five people were killed in Mississippi by the extreme weather, which resulted in at least one tornado that tore across portions of the state. One person was killed in neighbouring Alabama.

“Three minutes – in three minutes this neighbourhood was basically gone … Everything gone,” Biden said in front of a destroyed structure in Rolling Fork, a town of about 1,900 residents in western Mississippi where 13 people died.

“Three hundred homes and businesses are nothing more than piles of twisted materials,” he said. “Mixed up with personal items that mattered so much. Teddy Bears, family albums, clothes, dishes, basics of life all gone.”

Biden declared a state of emergency in Mississippi last Sunday, ordering federal aid to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in the affected areas.

The assistance can go to helping residents rebuild their homes and access temporary housing, among other measures, the White House said.

Speaking on Friday during Biden’s visit, Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker said, “What has been lost cannot be recovered.

“But we are confident that the people of Rolling Fork, that we are resilient and we will make this community bigger and better.”

‘Significant damage’ in Arkansas

The promises to rebuild in Mississippi came as meteorologists warned millions of people to brace for massive storms brewing over at least 15 states in the Midwest and southern US on Friday.

The weather threatened to bring tornadoes, blizzards and freezing rain to a vast section of the country, including areas affected by last week’s storm.

More than 85 million people were under weather advisories on Friday as the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center forecast an unusually large outbreak of thunderstorms with the potential to cause hail, damaging wind gusts and strong tornadoes that could move for long distances over the ground.

A fierce tornado blasted through Little Rock, the Arkansas state capital, ripping away roofs and walls from many buildings, uprooting trees, flipping over vehicles and leaving hundreds of people injured, according to media reports.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences declared a mass-casualty event after a “catastrophic” tornado hit the city, a CBS affiliate reported on Friday, adding hundreds of people were injured.

Aerial footage posted by The Weather Channel showed a heavily damaged area of Little Rock spanning several blocks with numerous homes missing roofs and walls, some of them collapsed, and overturned vehicles littering streets.

The National Weather Service also reported that tornado activity had destroyed several homes and downed trees in and around Little Rock.

The city’s mayor, Frank Scott Jr, said he was in contact with Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders to request National Guard assistance. “Again, please stay away from the affected areas to allow emergency responders access,” he wrote on Twitter.

Huckabee Sanders said the state suffered “significant damage”, without providing further information. “Arkansans must continue to stay weather aware as storms are continuing to move through,” she tweeted.

The area at greatest risk for storms followed a large stretch of the Mississippi River from Wisconsin all the way to Mississippi, with rare high-risk advisories centred around Memphis; and between Davenport, Iowa, and Quincy, Illinois and surrounding areas.

Forecasters issued tornado watches over both high-risk regions until Friday evening, with the weather service expecting numerous tornadoes and calling it a “particularly dangerous situation”.

With the newly-issued Tornado Watch, now more than 28 million people in a Tornado Watch.

Find and follow your local NWS office for the latest at pic.twitter.com/IL3iKjNTdo

— National Weather Service (@NWS) March 31, 2023

As of Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service had issued a tornado watch for eastern and central Iowa, northwestern Illinois, northeastern Missouri and the southwest corner of Wisconsin.

It urged the five million people living in these areas to be prepared for numerous strong tornadoes on Friday afternoon and evening.

The service also warned that northeastern Arkansas, Missouri’s southern boot-heel, western Kentucky and western Tennessee were at risk for tornadoes, as well.