一系列龙卷风周日在佐治亚州登陆，其中两次被国家气象局描述为“巨大且极其危险”，因为总统乔·拜登批准了对遭受风暴袭击的密西西比州的救灾工作，那里至少有25人死亡在一场强大的龙卷风爆发后。
NWS将龙卷风警戒范围向东延伸至密西西比州，直至周日午夜。
周日早上，气象局建议佐治亚州梅肯市、Milledgeville郊区、林顿市、比尤拉市和安德伍德市的居民“现在就隐蔽起来”
据气象局称，第二场龙卷风已被确认于周日早上在亚特兰大东南约65英里处的佐治亚州拉格朗日附近登陆，并以每小时40英里的速度向东移动。
“你正处于生命危险的境地，”气象局警告两个漏斗云路径上的居民。
佐治亚州特鲁普县警长办公室证实，一场可能的龙卷风席卷了阿拉巴马州附近的西点镇，损坏了80至100座建筑，造成20至30座建筑严重受损。警长办公室表示，多达三人在风暴中受伤。
位于佐治亚州哥伦布市以北约40英里松树山的松树山野生动物园也遭到了龙卷风的袭击，两只老虎从它们受损的围栏中逃脱，但很快被重新捕获并被迅速送回野生动物园。
佐治亚州州长布赖恩·坎普宣布佐治亚州部分地区进入紧急状态，因为龙卷风活动伴随着暴雨和洪水。
周日下午，阿拉巴马州和乔治亚州的部分地区仍处于龙卷风警戒状态。
南方至少有400万人受到严重雷暴的威胁，并伴有高尔夫球大小的冰雹和时速60英里的大风。
由于从加州开始的早春风暴在南方持续带来的恶劣天气，在洛杉矶和圣巴巴拉附近产生了龙卷风，密西西比州农村的城镇开始清理周五的龙卷风群。
拜登周日批准了密西西比州的救灾计划，为那些受到风暴破坏影响的人提供资金。白宫在一份声明中表示，卡罗尔、汉弗莱斯、门罗和夏基县的政府、部落和其他机构将获得联邦资金。
“对我来说，最重要的是，第一，确保当地管辖区，那些第一反应者，拥有他们需要的所有资源。然后，第二，我们开始照顾这些家庭，”联邦应急管理局局长迪安·克里斯威尔周日告诉美国广播公司“本周”的联合主播玛莎·拉达茨。
克里斯威尔说，她将于周日前往被龙卷风摧毁的密西西比州城镇，“以便能够亲眼目睹一些社区受到的影响。”
这严重的龙卷风周五晚些时候，席卷密西西比州Rolling Fork的风暴被评为EF-4级，这一分类标志着它是一场罕见的强大风暴
密西西比州杰克逊的国家气象局，说初步评级出来时，工作人员仍在收集有关风暴的信息。
EF或增强型藤田等级根据损害程度将龙卷风分为0到5级，5级是最具灾难性的。根据风暴预测中心的数据，EF-4级龙卷风仅占所有龙卷风的1%。历史上绝大多数的绕口令都被评为EF-0或者EF-1。
早期数据显示，龙卷风在大约70分钟的时间内在地面上飞行了59英里。它的最大宽度约为四分之三英里，或大约4000英尺。
龙卷风的最大风速为每小时170英里。
Rolling Fork市长Eldridge Walker说，搜救工作“非常接近”结束，当局认为每个人都已经找到。他说，他所在的大约有1800人的小镇几乎从地图上消失了。
“社区已经被摧毁了。沃克在美国广播公司的“早安美国”节目中说:“现在我们必须把这些碎片重新拼在一起。”
沃克也是该镇的葬礼负责人，他说在袭击他的镇的龙卷风中丧生的20人中有一些是朋友。
滚石乐队的居民欧文·梅肯(Erwin Macon)站在他完全被毁的家外面，只带着一个手提箱，他说这是他剩下的所有财产。梅肯告诉美国广播公司新闻，在龙卷风期间，不知从哪里冒出来的地毯砸在他身上，保护他免受飞行碎片的伤害。
梅肯说他很庆幸自己还活着。
“这一切都可以被取代，”他说他的家。“我会没事的。”
另一场密西西比龙卷风在卡罗尔县和蒙哥马利县造成了28.6英里的破坏，造成三人死亡，并在黑鹰镇和威诺纳镇造成了广泛的破坏。这场直径半英里的龙卷风被国家气象局初步评定为EF-3级，风速高达每小时155英里，并在地面上停留了25分钟以上。
至少四个其他龙卷风，所有测量EF-1和包装风速90至110英里/小时，也在密西西比州登陆。
在周五晚上遭受EF-4级龙卷风袭击的银城，一名2岁女孩是三名遇难居民之一，她的家人和汉弗莱斯县验尸官周日告诉ABC新闻。验尸官说，其他几名居民仍处于危急状态。
袭击密西西比州的龙卷风是周五发展的10场龙卷风之一，包括阿拉巴马州的一对EF-2漏斗云，在摩根县的Hartselle造成一人死亡。
官员说，另一场EF-2龙卷风袭击了田纳西州的费耶特维尔附近，在短短六分钟内在地面上翻滚了四英里。龙卷风破坏了一些家庭和企业的屋顶，折断了树木和电线杆，摧毁了一个大棚子，并撕掉了当地游乐场马棚的加固屋顶。官员们说，龙卷风还导致一辆大型拖车滚动了约80码，卷起几辆汽车，并将它们摔在地上。
提交灾难声明的密西西比州州长泰特·里维斯(Tate Reeves)周六表示，“破坏和损失的规模在今天受影响的所有地方都显而易见。”
在密西西比州Rolling Fork的一个活动房屋公园里，一名居民正在查看成堆的碎片、绝缘材料和家具，看是否有任何东西可以抢救。，2023年3月25日星期六。
Rogelio诉Solis/AP
“家庭、企业……整个社区。一起应对、恢复、重建，”他继续说道推特。“这就是使命。”
克里斯威尔说，虽然启动了龙卷风警报，一些城镇的警报器提醒居民即将到来的灾难，但不是每个人都收到或注意到了警报。
“在这些社区中，他们肯定是该州最贫困的社区。我们知道，我们将不得不调动联邦大家庭的全部力量来帮助他们，”克里斯威尔说。
在“本周”克里斯威尔的采访中，拉达茨指出，在大规模龙卷风袭击的地区，高达35%的密西西比州居民生活在贫困线以下，可能没有手机接收警报。
“我认为这是我们必须做的事情...不断寻找我们能做些什么来更好地通知人们，”克里斯威尔说。“我们知道有警笛声。我知道有些警笛响了。我不知道他们去了哪里。但是警报器是我们能够迅速向人们发出广泛警告的最好工具之一，尤其是当人们在睡觉的时候发生这样的夜间龙卷风时。”
New tornadoes menace Georgia as Biden approves disaster relief for Mississippi
A series of twisters touched down Sunday in Georgia -- two described by the National Weather Service as "large and extremely dangerous" -- as President Joe Biden approved disaster relief for storm-battered Mississippi, where at least25 people were left deadin the wake of a powerful tornado outbreak.
The NWS extended a tornado watch eastward across Mississippi until midnight Sunday.
Residents of the Macon, Georgia, suburbs of Milledgeville, Linton, Beulah and Underwood were advised Sunday morning by the weather service to "take cover now."
A second tornado was confirmed to have touched down Sunday morning near LaGrange, Georgia, about 65 miles southeast of Atlanta, and was moving east at 40 mph, according to the weather service.
"You are in a life-threatening situation," the weather service warned residents in the path of both funnel clouds.
Troup County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia confirmed that a likely tornado swept through the town of West Point near the Alabama line and damaged 80 to 100 structures, leaving 20 to 30 structures with major damage. The sheriff’s office said up to three people were injured in the storm.
The Pine Mountain Safari in Pine Mountain, Georgia, about 40 miles north of Columbus, Georgia, was also hit by a tornado and that two tigers escape from their damaged enclosure but were quickly recaptured and quickly returned to the wildlife park.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for parts of Georgia as the tornado activity was accompanied by heavy rain and flooding.
A tornado watch remained in effect for parts of Alabama and Georgia Sunday afternoon.
At least 4 million people in the South are also under a severe thunderstorm watch forecast to be accompanied by golf ball-sized hail and 60 mph winds.
As the severe weather continued in the South from the early spring storm that began in California, where it spawned twisters near Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, towns in rural Mississippi were starting the clean up from the swarm of tornadoes on Friday.
Biden approved disaster relief for Mississippi on Sunday, making funding available to those impacted by the storm devastation. Federal funds will be available to government, tribal and other agencies in Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe and Sharkey counties, the White House said in a statement.
"The biggest priority for me is, one, making sure that the local jurisdictions, those first responders, have all of the resources that they need. And then, second, that we start to take care of these families," FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, told ABC's "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday.
Criswell said she will travel on Sunday to the Mississippi towns devastated by the tornadoes "to be able to see firsthand the impacts that some of these communities have had."
Thesevere tornadothat tore through Rolling Fork, Mississippi, late Friday was assigned a rating of EF-4, a classification that marks it as a rare and powerful storm
The National Weather Service office in Jackson, Mississippi,saidthe preliminary rating comes as staffers are still gathering information about the storm.
The EF, or Enhanced Fujita, scale assigns tornados a number from zero to five based on damage, with five being the most catastrophic. According to the Storm Prediction Center,EF-4tornadoes make up only 1% of all tornadoes. Historically, the vast majority of twisters have been rated EF-0 or EF-1.
Early data showed that the tornado was on the ground for 59 miles over a period of about 70 minutes. Its maximum width was about three-quarters of a mile, or roughly 4,000 feet.
The tornado's maximum wind gust was measured at 170 mph.
Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker said search-rescue efforts were “pretty close” to finished and authorities believe everyone has been accounted for. He said his town of roughly 1,800 people was nearly wiped off the map.
"The community has been destroyed. And now we've got to put the pieces back together again,” Walker said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Walker is also the town's funeral director and said some of the 20 people killed in the tornado that struck his town were friends.
Rolling Rock resident Erwin Macon stood outside his completely decimated home with just a suitcase that he said held all the possessions he has left. Macon told ABC News that during the tornado he was shielded from flying debris by a carpet that came out of nowhere and landed on him.
Macon said he is just thankful to be alive.
"This can all be replaced," he said of his home. "I'll be OK."
A separate Mississippi tornado cut a 28.6-mile path of destruction through Carroll and Montgomery counties, killing three people and causing extensive damage in the town of Blackhawk and Winona. The half-mile-wide twister, preliminarily ranked an EF-3 by the National Weather Service, created winds as high as 155 mph and was on the ground for more 25 minutes.
At least four other tornadoes, all measuring EF-1 and packing winds of 90 to 110 mph, also touched down in Mississippi.
In Silver City, where an EF-4 tornado hit Friday night, a 2-year-old girl is one of the three residents there who were killed, her family and the Humphreys County coroner told ABC News on Sunday. Several other residents remain in critical condition, the coroner said.
The tornadoes that hit Mississippi were among 10 twisters that developed on Friday, including a pair of EF-2 funnel clouds in Alabama that killed a person in Hartselle in Morgan County.
Another EF-2 twister hit near Fayetteville, Tennessee, and churned on the ground for four miles in just six minutes, officials said. The tornado damaged the roofs of several homes and businesses, snapped trees and power poles, destroyed a large shed and ripped the reinforced roof off of the horse stalls at the local fairgrounds. The tornado also caused a large horse trailer to roll about 80 yards and picked up several cars and slammed them to the ground, officials said.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who submitted the disaster declaration, said on Saturday that the "scale of the damage and loss is evident everywhere affected today."
"Homes, businesses … entire communities. Respond, Recover, Rebuild together," he said onTwitter. "That is the mission."
Criswell said that while tornado warnings were activated and sirens in some towns alerted residents of the coming disaster, not everyone received or heeded the alerts.
"In some of these communities, they are certainly some of the poorest communities in the state. And we know that we’re going to have to bring the full force of the federal family in there to come help them," Criswell said.
In the interview with Criswell on "This Week," Raddatz noted that up to 35% of Mississippi residents in the area where the massive tornado struck, live below the poverty line and may not have cell phones to receive alerts.
"I think it’s something that we have to ... continually look at what we can do to better inform people," Criswell said. "We know that there are sirens. I know that some sirens did go off. I don’t have, the exact picture of where they went off. But sirens are one of the best tools that we do have to give a widespread warning to people quickly, especially when you have nocturnal tornadoes like this that happen while people are asleep."
