CNN —
At least one tornado rolled through western Mississippi on Friday night, damaging homes and knocking out power as the threat of storms remain overnight for neighboring Alabama and Tennessee.
The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado hit the towns of Silver City as well as Rolling Fork, which one resident described as obliterated following the storm’s devastating path.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” resident Brandy Showah told CNN. “This was a very great small town, and now it’s gone.”
Showah said the tornado damaged homes and buildings, gutted trees and tore down power lines in Rolling Fork, which is about 55 miles northwest of Jackson.
Her grandmother’s home suffered roofing damage, and its air conditioners have been ripped out, Showah said, but her grandmother is safe. Most of the trees in her grandmother’s yard have been downed, including one that her grandfather planted 50 years ago.
“My friend was trapped in her home a few houses down, but we got her out,” Showah said, adding that there are still people who live next to her grandmother trapped in their homes. She said all the power in her grandmother’s area has been knocked out.
CNN has reached out to officials in Rolling Fork for additional details.
That same “large and destructive” tornado was also confirmed near the community of Coila, the National Weather Service said, which issued a tornado emergency – the highest level of tornado warning – in Rolling Fork, Silver City and nearby Anguilla.
More than 20,000 homes and businesses in Mississippi were in the dark early Saturday, according to tracking site PowerOutage.us.
More than three million people are under a tornado watch across northern Alabama and middle Tennessee through 3 a.m. CT, according to the Storm Prediction Center. The watch includes Nashville, Tennessee, and Huntsville, Alabama. Thunderstorms moving into the tornado watch area have the potential to produce tornadoes, large hail and wind gusts up to 75 mph.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
