- Title: "It totalled everything" - Silver City residents survey tornado damage
- Date: 26th March 2023
- Summary: SILVER CITY, MISSISSIPPI, UNITED STATES (MARCH 25, 2023) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF JOHNNY CARITHERS' HOUSE WITHOUT ROOF AND WITH WINDOWS BLOWN OUT BROKEN WINDOWS TREE WITH PIECES OF METAL SIDING HANGING OFF OF IT EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE MISSING A ROOF AND BROKEN WINDOWS INTERIOR OF SAME HOUSE WITH DAMAGE ON CEILING / PAN TO KITCHEN WHERE WOMEN ARE CLEANING DAMAGED ROOF AND CEILING FAN (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHNNY CARITHERS, SILVER CITY RESIDENT WHO SURVIVED TORNADO, SAYING: "We heard the wind blowing real hard and we got in the hall there. I got in the chair behind that corner there, and my wife and mother-in-law and dogs in the hall there, and I got a big door and put it over that. The glass started flying through this way and I had my back against that door trying to hold it. And then all of a sudden, it turned away from that door and went straight through that-a-way. And then the top flew off. And that's about it. It lasted about 15 minutes." PAN FROM DAMAGED CEILING TO HALLWAY WITH DAMAGE AND DEBRIS (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHNNY CARITHERS, SILVER CITY RESIDENT WHO SURVIVED TORNADO, SAYING: "It totalled everything. I got, I had four cars or trucks sitting over there. It crushed all of them. I've got another truck in the backyard, that's my work truck right there, it's crushed all up. And it just tore up everything around here. This house has got 48-hundred square feet in it and I have an insurance for 212,000 but that's not going to take care of it. Nowhere close to it. We just spent 93-thousand dollars from November to this November redoing everything through here: put all new kitchen cabinets, new granite tops, new floors. All the floors have got (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in it. We replaced everything in it. All but the front porch, and that was what we were fixing to do next. I don't understand it. It didn't, it didn't hurt the tv. The clock on that wall is still going right there." TELEVISION HANGING ON WALL WITH DAMAGED CEILING OVER IT PAN OF DAMAGED CEILING (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHNNY CARITHERS, SILVER CITY RESIDENT WHO SURVIVED TORNADO, SAYING: "Honestly, I don't know what to do. Nothing's left. I've got another house over on the lake, lake. We're gonna stay over there. Right now, I've got so much stuff I've got to try to find places to put, and try to clean up because the rain is coming back in and there's no way to keep the water out of here. We just. We've been blessed. We had a few people come in and help clean up part of the yard and the house so we could get the vehicles out and all that. We're trying to get some of this stuff packed up to put in trailers, to store it and all that but. Right now, we've got food and water and stuff like that that people have brought us and all but other than that, we're doing okay." PAN FROM DAMAGED CEILING IN CARITHERS' HOUSE TO FLOOR WITH RUBBLE ON IT DAMAGED CEILING TO PAN OF BED WITH ITEMS ON IT PAN FROM THE FLOOR OF THE SUNROOM TO VIEW OF OUTSIDE THROUGH BROKEN WINDOWS PAN OF STREET WITH PARKED CAR, DAMAGED HOUSES, DOWNED TREES, AND CONSTRUCTION VEHICLE DRIVING DOWN STREET VARIOUS OF DAMAGED BRICK HOUSE VARIOUS OF HOUSE WITH SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE ON THE ROOF PILE OF RUBBLE AND DAMAGED TREE IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING PEOPLE WALKING ALONG THE PATH PAST FALLEN TREES AND HOUSE WITH DAMAGED ROOF VARIOUS OF SIGN ON THE GROUND READING 'DWELL IN HOPE/ PSALM 16:9' DAMAGED TRAILER (SOUNDBITE) (English) KATHERINE RAY, SILVER CITY RESIDENT WHO SURVIVED TORNADO IN HER TRAILER, SAYING: "This particular storm was different. I was unaware of it but when I heard the strange noise and the wind and stuff, I jumped up and put on some clothes, and jumped in the bathtub. I just started praying and saying, "Lord, I've been good and it's just me and You.' And I asked Him to take care of me." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) KATHERINE RAY, SILVER CITY RESIDENT WHO SURVIVED TORNADO IN HER TRAILER, SAYING: "In about 9 minutes, it was over with. It took it about a good 9 or 10 minutes and it had blown over. It had ceased. And then I got up and just start looking at the damage that it had done, and noticed that it had broke out some windows that I didn't know that I didn't hear them break. And all the tree falling that was so close to my house; I didn't know that. And it tore up one of my trucks and it shattered a couple of trucks, the glass in both of them." GIRL GATHERING STICKS NEAR DAMAGED CAR DAMAGED CAR DOWNED TREE OVER CAR PAN OF DOWNED TREE
- Embargoed: 9th April 2023 03:28
- Keywords: Mississippi Silver City natural disaster storm tornado
- Location: SILVER CITY, MISSISSIPPI, UNITED STATES
- City: SILVER CITY, MISSISSIPPI, UNITED STATES
- Country: US
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,North America,Wind/Hurricane/Typhoons/Tornadoes
- Reuters ID: LVA001030525032023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Mississippi residents combed through rubble on Saturday (March 25) after a powerful storm tore across Mississippi overnight, killing at least 25 people there and another person in Alabama, leveling hundreds of buildings, and spawning at least one devastating tornado.
The tornado stayed on the ground for about an hour and cut a path of destruction some 170 miles (274 km) long, according to Nicholas Price, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, Mississippi.
In Silver City, a town of around 300, residents described locking themselves in interior rooms and cowering inside bathtubs as the tornado swept through.
"I just started praying and saying, "Lord, I've been good and it's just me and You.' And I asked Him to take care of me," said Katherine Ray.
Her prayer was answered, she said; her trailer was damaged but still standing, while many of her neighbors saw their trailers completely destroyed.
As he and his family cleaned and packed, Silver City resident Johnny Carithers described the damage to his house.
"It totalled everything. I got, I had four cars or trucks sitting over there. It crushed all of them. I've got another truck in the backyard, that's my work truck right there, it's crushed all up. And it just tore up everything around here. This house has got 48-hundred square feet in it and I have an insurance for 212,000 but that's not going to take care of it. Nowhere close to it," he said. "I don't understand it. It didn't, it didn't hurt the tv. The clock on that wall is still going right there."
Governor Tate Reeves, who visited Silver City on Saturday, declared a state of emergency in the affected areas as Mississippi officials set up three emergency shelters.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Deanne Criswell will travel to Mississippi on Sunday, the White House said.
U.S. President Joe Biden described the images from Mississippi as "heartbreaking."
(Production: Aleks Michalska, Arlene Eiras) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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