US tornado: From clinging to carpet to hiding in a fridge as roof is torn off – the most unlikely tales of survival from pulverised Mississippi city
As day breaks in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, the chirping birds in the blue skies above cut through the eerie quiet.
Occasionally, a car passes with the front window rolled down as people take phone pictures and videos of destruction on a film-set scale.
A lone figure is plotting a path between mounds of wood and corrugated iron, which bear little resemblance to what stood here before.
It is the first time Erwin Macon, a janitor at the local primary school, has been back in the daylight to see what remains of the place he calls home.
The footprint of his mobile home is still there. Everything else, as he says, is gone.
“A lot of people lost their lives. Coming by here, seeing this, it’s hard to deal with,” he says, looking into the distance.
“I’m blessed to be alive.”
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Moment tornado hits Mississippi school
How man clung to carpet to ensure unlikely survival
It was just before 8pm on Friday when Macon received a text from the authorities, urging people to take shelter.
But it was too late. Within a few minutes, the tornado and its near 200mph swirling winds were upon him and the other almost 2,000 people who live in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
“I didn’t even hear the siren go off,” he says.
“So when it came, I couldn’t tell you which direction that storm was coming from.
“First it got calm and quiet and next thing you know, you start hearing all that noise and I felt coming towards me.
“The only thing I could do was to get the mattress off the bed and throw it on top of me and lay on the floor.
“The storm blew the mattress off and the only thing that covered me was the carpet.
“Somehow it wrapped around me, and no debris got on me, it kept the rain off.
“I was just holding so tightly, so I wouldn’t get sucked out. That was God, because I’m not supposed to be here.”
Photos show how deadly storm reduced buildings to rubble
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‘It’s really bad’: Residents hit by tornado
‘Blood running down my face’
Rolling Fork is a deeply religious community – and Lauretta Reed was thanking God, too, after her miraculous escape from the same mobile home park.
She has just been released from the hospital, with stitches holding together a deep gash on her forehead and a finger which was, she says, half hanging off.
“It happened so fast, I don’t know what hit me,” she says.
“I just heard a roar like a big train coming towards me. I don’t know how long it lasted for, but when I came out I had blood running down my face.
“It was still lightening and people were screaming and crying for help and I couldn’t help them. It hurts.”
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Damage from the tornado in Amory, Mississippi. Pics: AP
Seeing the scale of the damage, it is hard to believe that more lives were not lost here, even as the search and rescue effort continues.
Everything in the path of the tornado was pulverised.
Almost everyone here has a story to tell.
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Sheriff heartbroken after relative dies in US tornado
Hiding in a fridge as building destroyed
At Chuck’s Dairy Bar, a diner on the main road of this small town, perhaps the most miraculous of survival stories, as employees hid in a refrigerator while the tornado passed through.
Owner Tracy Harden says: “The lights flickered and someone said ‘cooler’. Nine of us rushed in, really quickly.
“Before my husband could close the door, he said, ‘I can see the sky’. That meant our roof was gone.
“I can’t say how long we were in there, but we felt it moving. We were being pushed and shoved between each other.
“Then all of a sudden it stopped”.
A truck rests on top of a restaurant cooler at Chuck’s Dairy Bar. Pic: AP
Tracy and Tim Hardin, owners of Chuck’s Dairy Bar, survey the destruction to their business. Pic: AP
The tornado left as fast as it had come.
But the scars – in the minds, businesses and homes of people in Rolling Fork – will take much longer to heal.
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he “will not back down” from Russia’s goals in Ukraine during a phone call today, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian president spoke to his US counterpart for almost an hour, and Mr Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
In response, Mr Putin said “Russia will not back down” from its aims there, which include “the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Mr Ushakov said.
The phrase “root causes” is shorthand for Moscow’s argument that it was compelled to invade Ukraine in order to prevent the country from joining NATO.
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Trump and Putin’s latest call on Ukraine
Ukraine and its European allies say this is a pretext to justify what they call an imperial-style war, but Mr Trump has previously shown sympathy with Russia.
At the same time, Mr Putin told the US president that Russia is ready to continue negotiating, the aide said.
The Russian president said any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine give up its NATO bid and recognise his country’s territorial gains.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seen with Mr Trump in June, is pushing for Ukraine to join NATO. Pic: Reuters
He also briefed Mr Trump on agreements made last month, which saw Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war and dead soldiers.
Specific dates for the third round of peace talks in Istanbul were not discussed – nor was the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s call came after the Pentagon confirmed some weapons due to be sent to Ukraine have been held as it reviews military stockpiles.
The paused shipments include air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, two people familiar with the situation have said.
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The decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington.
Kyiv also cautioned that the move would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s phone call was the sixth they have publicly disclosed since the US president returned to the White House in January.
Donald Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ has been passed by the US congress, sending it to the president to sign into law.
The controversial tax breaks and spending cuts package cleared its final hurdle as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the bill with a 218-214 vote.
The bill delivers tax breaks Mr Trump promised in his 2024 election campaign, cuts health and food safety programmes, and zeroes out dozens of green energy incentives.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), it will lower tax revenues by $4.5trn over 10 years and add $3.4trn to the US’s $36.2trn debt.
But despite concerns over the 869-page bill’s price tag – and its hit to healthcare programmes – Republicans largely lined up in support, with just two rebelling on the vote.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is congratulated following the vote. Pic: Reuters
Every Democrat in Congress voted against the bill, blasting it as a giveaway to the wealthy that will leave millions of Americans uninsured.
House Speaker Mike Johnson made the Republicans’ closing argument for the bill, telling Congress: “For everyday Americans, this means real, positive change that they can feel.”
Earlier, the House’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries gave a record-breaking eight-hour and 44-minute speech against it.
“The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires,” he said.
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The bill’s spending cuts largely target Medicaid, the health programme that covers 71 million Americans on low incomes.
It will tighten enrolment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments.
The changes could leave nearly 12 million people without health insurance, according to the CBO.
On the other side of the ledger, it will stave off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of the year, when tax cuts from President Trump’s first term were due to expire.
It also sets up new tax breaks for overtime pay, seniors and tipped income.
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The bill narrowly passed the US Senate on Tuesday after vice president JD Vance cast the deciding vote to break a 50-50 tie.
Mr Trump will sign it into law on Friday at 5pm local time (10pm in the UK), the White House said.
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