Deadliest tornadoes kill 26; power outage across Alabama, Mississippi. 10 points

Powerful tornadoes tore across Mississippi overnight killing at least 25 people in the southern US state. according to Nicholas Price, a meteorologist, the tornado stayed on the ground for about an hour and cut a path of destruction some 170 miles (274 km) long. Residents of Rolling Fork town shot the video of the massive storm that showed homes reduced to rubble, tree trunks snapped like twigs, and cars tossed aside.

How tornadoes ravaged Mississippi, Alabama. 10 updates

1.The Saturday's tornadoes in Mississippi that ravaged parts of the Deep South overnight was the deadliest in the state in more than a decade, according to National Weather Service records. Earlier, in 2011, similar tornadoes hit the state in which 31 people got killed. And, Alabama was hit hardest during that so-called “super outbreak” of hundreds of twisters that killed more than 320 people and caused an estimated $12 billion in damage in 2011.

2.Rolling Fork, located near Mississippi has a population of 1,700 and was hit hardest town from the tornado. Members of one family narrowly escaped by taking shelter in a bathroom; the rest of the house collapsed around them, and the high winds dropped a van on top of the home, a resident told Reuters news agency.

3.In Alabama, which was also struck by the same storm system, rescuers pulled a man from the mud when his trailer was overturned, but the man died from his injuries.

4.US President Joe Biden described the images from Mississippi as "heartbreaking". "To those impacted by these devastating storms, and to the first responders and emergency personnel working to help their fellow Americans, we will do everything we can to help," Biden said. “We will be there as long as it takes. We will work together to deliver the support you need to recover.”

5.Mississippi officials set up three emergency shelters, including at the National Guard Armory in Rolling Fork.

6.About 26,000 customers remained without power as of Saturday evening in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee due to the storm, according to the website PowerOutage.us.

7.At least 24 reports of tornadoes, stretching from western Mississippi into Alabama, were issued to the National Weather Service on Friday night and into Saturday morning by storm chasers and observers.

8.Malary White, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said officials would fully assess the damage throughout Saturday.

9.Tornadoes, a weather phenomenon notoriously difficult to predict, are relatively common in the United States, especially in the central and southern parts of the country.

10.In January, a series of damaging twisters, all on the same day, left several people dead in Alabama and Georgia.