Storm survivors thankful to be alive

And rescuers fear the death toll could rise as they search through the rubble of wrecked buildings. No further information was available. At least 15 people have died as the outbreak of severe weather trenched through Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas.

Communities were banding together and already raising money to help those affected by tornadoes and severe weather that ripped across the country this week, causing devastation in the South and Midwest before Christmas. Dozens of homes were damaged or destroyed. Crawford and Williams were neighbors on the same street. One of those missing is Michael Nunnally.

Phil Bryant said on Thursday that there were seven deaths in the state.

The young boy was reportedly killed in MS after a vehicle he was travelling in was swept up and tossed by the storm.

A teenager died when a tree fell on a house in Atkins, Arkansas.

Glenda Hunt, 69, was cooking chicken and making dressing Wednesday night at her Benton County home, where Christmas Eve lunch is a family tradition, when her daughter called to warn her of the approaching storm. The springlike storms continued east on Thursday, dumping torrents that flooded roads in Alabama and caused a mudslide in the Georgia mountains. Two were in Marshall County, and the other was in Tippah County. Portions of southeast Alabama received rainfall that totaled 10 inches or more. The springlike storms packing strong winds killed two more in Tennessee.

About 500 flights were delayed or canceled at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport as the area was hit by a thunderstorm.

The storms began sweeping through from the west around 4 p.m., bringing heavy rain and severely damaging winds.

It started in northern MS and didn’t lift up until western Tennessee.

Officials were inviting volunteers to step up or make donations as people who fled returned to their homes to see what was left standing, if anything.

Holmes said reports of tornado activity in Bibb County, also southwest of Birmingham, have not been confirmed.

The state’s emergency management director, Gary Rogers, told CNN affiliate WZTV that two other people are missing. An hour later, the National Weather Service confirmed that first responders were on the scene along Jefferson Avenue in a working class neighborhood about eight miles from downtown Birmingham.

Temperatures were in the mid- to upper 70s along the Gulf Coast.

While they are without a home for Christmas, they told FOX13 they’re blessed to be alive and unharmed. “It’s a really interesting way to spend Christmas Eve eve”.

Residents salvage what they can from their home along Highway 178 after a tornado struck Holly Springs, Mississippi. Agency spokesman Greg Flynn said some of the injuries included amputations.

“Most of the damage is going to be on the back end and the side of the house”, he said.

The spring-like storms mixed with unseasonably warm weather made the flawless recipe for destruction. It’s part of the same cell that warranted an earlier tornado warning in Tuscaloosa County, southwest of the Jefferson. Seven Mississippians have been lost in this storm.

Wednesday’s storm system triggered more than 20 tornadoes in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and MI, authorities said. Trees rested atop several trucks on his property, and slabs of brick walls were strewn throughout his yard after the storm.