Deadly weather in the Southeast killed 15 people and injured dozens more, authorities said today, as residents along the Georgia-Florida line braced for more intense, fast-moving storms including unusually strong "long track" twisters.
Today, a tornado blew through a mobile home park in rural Cook County in southern Georgia sheering off siding, upending homes and killing seven people, officials said.
Coroner Tim Purvis said an apparent tornado "leveled" the park before dawn today and that emergency responders searched for survivors for hours after the twister struck.
Purvis said the park had about 40 mobile homes, and roughly half were destroyed. The area was cordoned off by police.
Several homes appeared to be destroyed along on a road within about 2 miles of the mobile home park, with cinderblocks scattered on the ground and pine trees uprooted and snapped in half. The tops of broken utility poles lay alongside the road.
The South Georgia Motorsports Park in Cecil was heavy damaged; a grandstand was ripped apart. Barrels, signs, insulation and garbage were strewn over the speedway and parking lot.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency in seven southern Georgia counties, freeing up state resources to assist with recovery efforts.
In addition to seven deaths in Cook County, four people were killed in adjoining counties Sunday. Another four people were killed in Mississippi by a tornado on Saturday, bringing the weekend death toll to 15.
The National Weather Service said today that southern Georgia, northern Florida and the corner of southeastern Alabama could face forceful tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail. Long track tornadoes, which plow on for miles, were also a real risk.
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