Michelle Besaw hugs her uncle Steve Besaw after he came to help his brother Alan Besaw, whose home on Townhouse Lane suffered extensive storm damage, Thursday, April 11, 2013 in Hazelwood, Mo. The National Weather Service says a tornado is believed to have been the culprit that damaged dozens of homes in the St. Louis suburb of Hazelwood.SHUQUALAK, Miss. – A strong spring storm that socked the Midwest with ice and heavy, wet snow made its way east, raking the South with tornadoes Thursday, with three deaths blamed on the rough weather and thousands of people without power.
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Greg Flynn said Thursday one person died and several people were injured after a reported tornado struck Kemper County in the far eastern part of the state.
Tabatha Lott, a dispatcher in Noxubee County, said there were “numerous reports of injuries” in the town of Shuqualak, though it wasn’t immediately clear how many. Flynn also said there are reports of damaged buildings and many power outages.
The T-shaped system first swept across the nation’s midsection Wednesday night and pummeled portions of Missouri, where the National Weather Service said Thursday that an EF-2 tornado appears to have damaged dozens of homes in the St. Louis suburb of Hazelwood. That category of tornado generally packs winds of 113 to 157 mph.
Derek Cody, an amateur storm chaser who works at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, just south of Shuqualak, told The Associated Press that he drove north to the small town to try to catch a glimpse of the tornado.