(Vatican Radio) The death toll from a storm system which has been sweeping through
parts of the United States Midwest and South since Sunday continues to rise, with
nearly 30 people confirmed dead as of Tuesday morning. This most recent spate of
deadly tornados and storms devastated parts of the Southern United States on Monday
and into Tuesday. Scores of business and homes were destroyed, while tens of thousands
of people were without power in Alabama and Mississippi. Along a Mississippi highway
east of Louisville early Tuesday, firefighters could be seen picking through the remains
of pulverized mobile homes. The system is the latest onslaught of severe weather
that swept through Arkansas, Iowa, and Oklahoma on Sunday. In an interview with
the BBC storm chaser Matt Coker described the scene outside of Mayflower, Arkansas
where he and his team were tracking the storm: “We’re seeing complete devastation,”
he said, “We didn’t quite know if it was going to hit Mayflower or not, and we drove
up on the interstate and we just saw complete devastation and we went in and we just
immediately started helping people. We were scrambling to help as many people as we
could.” Arkansas suffered the most casualties when a half-mile-wide tornado carved
an 80-mile path of destruction through the suburbs of Little Rock. Listen to
Ann Schneible’s report: