Southern Communities Works Hard to Rebuild After Suffering from Strong Tornado

Several cities in the Southeast are picking up the pieces after a severe weather outbreak hit the region in the final week of March, bringing strong winds and damaging tornadoes.

Jillian Angeline, an AccuWeather National Reporter, was on the scene in McLain, Mississippi, when an EF2 tornado with winds of up to 115 miles per hour damaged 13 homes and two churches.

McLain Rebuilds

McLain is a tiny community of less than 1,000 people in the Pine Belt, extending across southeastern Mississippi and roughly 120 miles northeast of New Orleans on the Gulf Coast.

The residence of Leo Harrison and his family, in particular, was severely damaged. The twister ripped the roof off the house, forcing emergency responders to cover the damaged structure with a tarp.

"I'm glad I'm alive. " Harrison said, all could've been a lot worse," Harrison said, adding that he didn't have homes insurance. "My granddaughter had one small cut on her finger, and that was it, but we all got soaked."

One of the two tornado-damaged churches was struck by lightning first, forcing parishioners to fight the flames. Despite the storm's severity, no one in McLain was seriously hurt or killed.

"We have some damage, which is not ideal," said Trent Robertson, director of Greene County Emergency Management. "However, we were fortunate that there were no injuries, no fatalities, and we can always rebuild."

Tornado Hitting Tallahassee

According to The Associated Press, a tornado struck just west of Tallahassee, near the hamlet of Alford on the Florida Panhandle, killing at least two people and injuring two more on March 31. In the town of Springdale, Arkansas, an EF3 tornado damaged homes and a school, injuring at least seven people, two of whom were critically injured.

Forecast

Next week, the South will see more variable weather, with the possibility of further storms bringing severe winds, heavy rain, and tornadoes.

Tornadoes

Tornadoes are frequent in Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America, among other places. Every year, roughly 20 tornadoes are reported in New Zealand. Argentina and Bangladesh have the largest number of tornadoes outside of the United States.

Tornadoes Hitting the US

Every year, about 1,200 tornadoes strike the United States. We don't know the average number of tornadoes each year because official tornado data only goes back to 1950. Furthermore, tornado spotting and reporting techniques have evolved significantly over the previous several decades, implying that we see more tornadoes than occur.

In the United States, tornado season is when the most tornadoes occur. Although spring arrives earlier on the Gulf Coast, the southern Plains (Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas) have their peak "tornado season" from May to early June. Tornado season begins in June or July in the northern Plains and upper Midwest (North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota). However, Tornadoes can occur at any year. Tornadoes can strike at any hour of the day or night, although the majority strike between 4 and 9 p.m.

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