Jackson man who shot at officer during high-speed chase sentenced to 10 years in prison

UPDATE: Storms batter South, 3 in Mississippi among storm-related deaths

Jeff Amy and Rogelio Solis
Associated Press

Storm update: 4:20 p.m. Friday

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is declaring the state's second state of emergency in less than a week due to tornadoes.

The Republican governor issued the proclamation Friday, a day after tornadoes swept across the state. The storms are blamed for three deaths in Mississippi — two men who were driving and a third man crushed by a tree he was cutting up after the severe weather struck.

The proclamation will speed state resources to affected areas. Among the hardest-hit areas is the town of Morton, about 30 miles east of Jackson.

Storm update: 3:30 p.m. Friday

Officials say Mississippi's storm death toll stands at three after a man was fatally injured while helping cut a tree that fell on a house.

Lincoln County Coroner Clay McMorris tells the Daily Leader of Brookhaventhat 63-year-old Freddie Mobley died from injuries after a tree trunk rolled onto him Thursday in the southwestern Mississippi community. Deputy Coroner Ricky Alford says the Brookhaven resident had made a few cuts on the tree and backed away when the trunk shifted before he could move. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead about two hours later.

Two other people who were killed while driving as severe weather moved through the South are also being counted as storm related deaths in Mississippi.

In Pell City, Alabama, 42-year-old Monica Clements died after a tree fell on her mobile home Thursday.

Storm update: 3 p.m. Friday

Hundreds of people are cleaning up part of a central Mississippi town hit hard by a tornado generated by a storm system moving through the South.

Volunteers and family members were swarming the north side of Morton on Friday, where the National Weather Service says a twister with winds as high as 132 mph (212 kph) hit a neighborhood a day earlier. More than 20 homes were heavily damaged or destroyed. The town of 3,500 is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Jackson.

People cut up and removed fallen trees to clear roads and yards. Some people were salvaging belongings from destroyed homes and loading them into vehicles.

Damage from the storm system was reported in at least 24 of Mississippi's 82 counties.

Storm update: 2:25 p.m. Friday

Motorists are being urged to avoid part of a major interstate that runs through South Carolina after a line of storms downed trees and left the roadway scattered with debris.

Video posted on Twitter on Friday by the South Carolina Highway Patrol shows Interstate 26 in Orangeburg County littered with large tree limbs. One lane of eastbound traffic was open but moving slowly. The interstate is the main artery from South Carolina's Upstate through Columbia and all the way to Charleston.

Many parts of South Carolina remain under tornado watches and warnings as the storm system moves through the state.

Storm update: 12:40 p.m. Friday

A storm system moving through the South is being blamed for the death of an 8-year-old girl in Florida.

The Leon County Sheriff's Office says a tree fell Friday into a house in Woodville south of Tallahassee, killing the girl and injuring a 12-year-old boy.

The office said in a statement that the girl died at the hospital while the boy has non-life-threatening injuries. Their names weren't immediately released.

Much of Florida was being hit Friday by strong storms that were also creating a threat of tornadoes in parts of the Carolinas and Virginia.

Storm update: 12:15 p.m. Friday

A storm system moving through Georgia has knocked down trees, caused minor flooding and cut off power to thousands of residents.

Georgia power companies reported that more than 37,000 customers were without power around the state Friday afternoon.

A tree came down on an apartment complex in an Atlanta suburb. Gwinnett County fire spokesman Capt. Tommy Rutledge told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that people were inside at the time, but only one person reported a minor injury and was treated at the scene.

In Forsyth County northeast of Atlanta, Fire Department Division Chief Jason Shivers told the newspaper three firefighters suffered minor injuries when their firetruck overturned during heavy rain and wind.

The storm system was expected to hit the Carolinas and Virginia later, bringing the possibility of tornadoes to parts of those states.

Original story

LEARNED, Miss. — Strong storms again roared across the South on Thursday, killing two Mississippi drivers and a woman in Alabama while leaving more than 100,000 people without power across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

National Weather Service forecasters said they believe multiple tornadoes hit southwest and central Mississippi, although they won't be sure until damage is surveyed. Heavy winds also were reported in Louisiana earlier in the day and in central Alabama as the system quickly pushed eastward. Forecasters predicted the system would push into Georgia before sunrise.

On the back side of the system, there were also reports late Thursday of high winds in southern Oklahoma.

A Mississippi man was killed Thursday afternoon when his car hit a tree on a highway south of Philadelphia, Mississippi, Neshoba County Coroner John Stephens told local news outlets. Stephens did not immediately release the man's name.

Kenderick Magee, 24, was also killed while driving in the storm, WLBT-TV reported. Magee fatally crashed near the rural town of Gillsburg in southwest Mississippi, Amite County Coroner Campbell Sharp said.

Two minor injuries were reported in Harvey, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, when a power pole fell on two vehicles.

Alabama authorities said a woman was killed Thursday night after strong storms knocked a tree onto her mobile home in St Clair County. Emergency crews found 42-year-old Monica Clements dead inside the home. Clements' 10-year-old son suffered minor injuries.

Damage was heavy in the Mississippi hamlet of Learned, about 20 miles southwest of Jackson. Large oaks were uprooted from saturated ground, landing on at least a dozen houses.

One belongs to the family of Jesse Qualls, a Mississippi State University student who was on his way home for Easter when the storms hit. He says his mother had gone to pick up his sister from school and returned to find a pecan tree had crashed through Qualls' bedroom and bathroom. His dog Dukey was uninjured.

Qualls said he got a tearful call from his mother, but he struggled to make it home, using his truck to push fallen trees off roads leading into town.

"I saw the house and I started freaking out," Qualls said, as residents and emergency workers sawed up other trees off streets in the 100-resident town. "My dad passed away a while ago and this is all I have left of him."

Qualls, though, said his family will be fine and the storm is likely to spark a long-delayed renovation.

"We've got a lot of people to help," Qualls said. He said his family likely would stay with relatives in nearby Clinton, where two cars were flipped in a Walmart parking lot.

To the northeast, Scott County Emergency Management Director Mike Marlow said reports indicated a number of homes were damaged near Morton and the roof blew off a gas station near Lena. In Philadelphia, Mississippi, a wall collapsed at a medical clinic and the storm knocked down traffic signals and canopies and pushed trees onto houses, the Neshoba Democrat reported.

Damage from the storm system was reported in at least 24 of Mississippi's 82 counties.

Schools and colleges sent students home early across much of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. In Jackson, state Auditor Shad White said his staff huddled in a stairway in a high-rise state office building while tornado sirens wailed, winds howled and rains poured. Spokeswoman Cathy Hayden said employees at Hinds Community College in Raymond hid in an underground bookstore storage room.

The same system produced tornadoes and hail earlier in North Texas, the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas.

Seven tornadoes were reported across the Plains from the northeastern Texas Panhandle to southeastern Kansas. Strong winds hit elsewhere Wednesday evening, toppling utility poles and trees and downing power lines in parts of North Texas.

No significant structural damage was reported, but heavy rainfall caused flash flooding that prompted the shutdown of Interstate 30 in central Arkansas and the closure of several schools around Little Rock.

The National Weather Service received numerous reports of hail pelting the storm-struck areas. Egg-size hail was reported about 60 miles (95 kilometers) northwest of Fort Worth.

The threat came days after more than 40 tornadoes from East Texas to Georgia left at least nine dead. That outbreak damaged more than 250 homes, businesses and public buildings across Mississippi.

Jeff Amy reported from Jackson, Mississippi.

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