Survivors tell of harrowing Mississippi tornado

(25 Mar 2023) ASSOCIATED PRESS Rolling Fork, Mississippi - 25 March 2023 1. SOUNDBITE (English) Derrick Brady Jr., nine-year-old local resident: "I never thought we would go through something like this. But, I was starting to realize God was going to send something through here because he was going to get tired of it." ++BLACK FRAMES++ 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Wanda Barfield, local resident: "We okay. We can get everything else. When it's your time, it's just your time and we can't be angry with God. God makes no mistakes. We cannot be angry. He did what he had to do." ++BLACK FRAMES++ ASSOCIATED PRESS Silver City, Mississippi - 25 March 2023 3. SOUNDBITE (English) Noel Crook, local resident: "We have several bathrooms. We have an interior bathroom that doesn't have any windows and that's our safe place that we've always gone when the weather's turned bad, the tornado warnings come out. Take the children up in there, so if there's a window blown out, you don't have any glass flying around. And that's where we were. We could hear the wind and hear the roof peeling back. Felt the house kind of twisting a little bit. It didn't take more than about 15 or 20 minutes for the whole thing to come through. And then, when I looked, there it is. What's left of it. We never really got a good look to see the total extent of the damage until this morning when the sun came up because we don't have any power, we don't have any water. No electricity or anything." ++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++ STORYLINE: Survivors in the US state of Mississippi recounted on Saturday about a powerful tornado which killed at least 25 people and injured dozens more. There were devastating accounts of utter destruction, incredible survival and tragic deaths following Friday’s twister which surged nearly 170 miles (274 kilometers) across the Deep South. "I never thought we would go through something like this," said nine-year-old Derrick Brady Jr. from the town of Rolling Fork. There, homes were reduced to piles of rubble, cars were flipped on their sides and the town's water tower was toppled over. Other residents remained in disbelief as they assessed the aftermath of the tornado. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued a State of Emergency and vowed to help rebuild as he headed to view the damage in an area speckled with wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields and catfish farming ponds. President Joe Biden also promised federal help, describing the damage as “heartbreaking.” =========================================================== Clients are reminded to adhere to all listed restrictions and to check the terms of their licence agreements. For further assistance, please contact the AP Archive on: Tel +44(0)2074827482 Email: info@aparchive.com. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/74785e07e64d4be3ba7565d63e7c11f0