Savage weather slams southeastern United States

World Today

Savage weather slams southeastern U.S..03

Savage weather is slamming several states across the US South, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Toby Muse reports.

Franklin, Texas was slammed by a tornado that destroyed more than 60 buildings and injured a dozen.

“Hard to describe. You’ve got houses turned over. You’ve got houses off foundations. It looks like a bomb had gone off,” said Franklin Police Chief Terry Thibodeaux.

The tornado’s winds whipped the town at 225 miles per hour.

A man was killed in the Mississippi town of Hamilton when a tree crashed on to his home.

Two children died in east Texas when high winds slammed a tree on to the back of a family car while it was driving. Their parents in the front were uninjured.

Back in Frankiln, Sunday was a day to try to put their town back together again.

“We’ve got about half of Texas came to help us. And we’ve lost about half of the south side of Franklin. It’s totally destroyed,” said Robertson County Judge Charles Ellison.

The U.S. normally receives more than a 1,000 tornadoes a year, with tornado season stretching from April to July.