A powerful storm system was menacing a large swath of the South early Tuesday, killing more than two dozen people from Arkansas to Alabama over more than two days of destruction. Here are the some stories from people in Mississippi and Alabama that made it through the frightening chaos.
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After the tornado pounced on Tupelo, Miss., one gas station looked as if it had been stepped on by a giant. Francis Gonzalez owns a convenience store and Mexican restaurant attached to that station. Gonzalez, her three children and two employees ducked for cover in the store’s cooler shortly after a cellphone blared a tornado warning.
In the nick of time. Within seconds, the wind picked up and glass shattered. The roof over the gas pumps was reduced to aluminum shards. A nearby SUV had its windows blown out. The storefront window had a large hole in it. Debris lay everywhere.
“It took us by surprise,” Gonzalez said in Spanish. Stunned by the destruction all around, she added: “My Lord, how can all this happen in just one second?”
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - As many as nine deaths are being reported from severe storms blowing through the South, but the toll could rise.
In Mississippi, officials say at least seven people have been killed. State Director of Health Protection Jim Craig said Monday night that officials are working with coroners to confirm the total. Winston County Coroner Scott Gregory said six fatalities were reported in that county alone.
In north Alabama, Limestone County Emergency Director Rita White said the coroner’s office had confirmed two deaths in a twister that caused extensive damage west of the city of Athens.
White says still more victims might be trapped in the wreckage of damaged buildings, but rescuers can’t reach some areas yet. Separately, Limestone Commissioner Bill Latimer says he has reports from a worker of at least four deaths in the county.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The marriages of three same-sex Tennessee couples who are suing the state have been invalidated, at least temporarily, by a federal appeals court panel.
The couples were married in other states but live in Tennessee, where the constitution and state law recognize only marriages between one man and one woman. In March, a U.S. district court judge in Nashville granted a temporary injunction, forcing the state to recognize the marriages of the three couples.
But on Friday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati put the lower court’s order on hold because it says “the law in this area is so unsettled.” The court ordered that Tennessee’s appeal of the injunction receive an expedited hearing.
The ruling throws into question the status of a 1-month-old girl, born to plaintiffs Valeria Tanco and Sophy Jesty in March, days after the district judge forced the state to recognize their marriage while the lawsuit made its way through the courts. Tanco and Jesty’s baby became the first in the state to have parents of the same gender listed on her birth certificate.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Regina Lambert said in a telephone interview that Tanco and Jesty are not discouraged by the 6th Circuit’s ruling. All four states in the 6th Circuit face challenges to their laws prohibiting same sex marriage.
“The 6th Circuit is realizing this is a critical, crucial issue,” Lambert said. “It’s happening all over the U.S. now at a very swift pace.”
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee Highway Patrol says a blown tire on a North Carolina church bus was the cause of a fiery crash that killed eight people in three vehicles last October.
Speaking at a news conference in Knoxville on Monday, Highway Patrol Col. Tracy Trott said the Oct. 2 crash that occurred on Interstate 40 in Jefferson County, about 30 miles east of Knoxville, was one of the worst traffic accidents in the state’s history.
Trott said the investigation found no defect in the tire and there was no evidence any of the drivers were impaired or distracted.
“It was truly just a tragic accident,” he said.
The bus was returning to Statesville, North Carolina, with a group of seniors from the Front Street Baptist Church who had been attending a religious retreat in Gatlinburg. After the tire blew, the bus crossed the median and the cable barriers that divide the interstate. It clipped an oncoming sport utility vehicle and slammed into a tractor-trailer, which burst into flames, before coming to rest on its side.
Trott said the evidence indicates the left front tire impacted an object sometime in the 50 miles before the crash, causing the tire to fail once it got hot.
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