Residents in Hattiesburg, Mississippi woke up on Monday to find their homes and towns destroyed by a tornado that ravaged the area on Sunday. Reports state that the huge twister injured a least a dozen people, as well as damaging businesses and parts of the University of Southern Mississippi.
According to CBS News affiliate WHLT, the campus sustained damage to six academic buildings but no damage to residential buildings. The university later released a statement saying that the school was under a state of emergency and that anyone who was away from campus should stay away, CBS reported.
The twister was one of at least three separate twisters to hit south-central Mississippi, the National Weather Service reported. The storms damaged several buildings and at least 100 homes, Reuters reported.
The twister, which passed through several counties, left 10 people injured in Forrest County and three people hurt in Marion County, emergency officials told CBS. Mississippi Emergency Management spokesman Greg Flynn told Reuters that no deaths had been reported but added that two people had been taken to a hospital in Lamar County with critical injuries.
Reuters reported that Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency in all the seven counties hit by the tornados as power outages and rain plagued residents on Monday. Flynn told Reuters, "The bad thing is, it keeps raining. It's supposed to rain all day today and then all day tomorrow."
"We've already had flash-flooding issues and the creeks and the streams are all overtopped. It's just going to make things a lot more difficult in the recovery process," he added.
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