Crammed into their two-door Toyota Celica with three huskies, Hailey Hart and her fiance Steve Romero hugged and prayed as a tornado rolled the car upside down before tossing it on its wheels again.
They heard screams for help minutes after the twister ripped apart their home in Tylertown, Mississippi. "It was a bad dream come true,” Romero said.
Next door, Hart’s grandparents crawled out from the rubble of their house where they had sought shelter in a bathroom on Saturday. They all escaped with just a few scratches and aches.
Throughout the South and Midwest, residents and work crews were beginning to clean up Monday and survey the destruction after severe weather across seven states kicked up a devastating combination of wildfires, dust storms and tornadoes, claiming at least 39 lives since Friday.
Wind-driven wildfires across Oklahoma destroyed more than 400 homes, including more than 70 in and around Stillwater, home to Oklahoma State University. Four deaths were blamed on the fires or high winds, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said Sunday.
Crews trying to control the fires were quickly overwhelmed while going up against the high winds and low humidity fueling the flames on Friday, said Stillwater Fire Chief Terry Essary.
“It’s an insurmountable task,” he said.
