Killer rainstorms and tornadoes wreaked havoc from Florida to the Heartland on Wednesday, sending thousands running for safety — many even ditching their cars on impassable roads to seek shelter on foot.
The Florida Panhandle has been particularly hard hit, with first responders struggling to answer 911 calls.
“It’s gotten to the point where we can’t send EMS and fire rescue crews out on some 911 calls because they can’t get there,” Escambia County spokesman Bill Pearson said. “We’ve had people whose homes are flooding and they’ve had to climb up to the attic.”
The Pensacola News Journal couldn’t deliver its print edition Wednesday morning, with a “best-case scenario” of the paper reaching subscribers’ doors by the afternoon — or even as late as Thursday.
Police stations have turned into temporary shelters for motorists who wisely didn’t want to risk the roads.
“We have people at the police department,” Pensacola Police Officer Justin Cooper said. “They walked up here and are hanging out until things get better.”
Officials across northern Florida and the Panhandle pleaded with residents to steer clear of driving.
“It is imperative that those individuals in the path of this storm system monitor the emerging situation and follow all instructions from local officials,” said Bryan Koon, Florida Division of Emergency Management director. “All Floridians should stay alert to possible impacts of this storm system. Do not drive into floodwater.”
In Baldwin County, Ala., on the eastern side of Mobile Bay, rescuers were busy Tuesday night and Wednesday morning plucking residents off rooftops, where they had escaped the rising tide.
“As soon as we get a water rescue team in here, they’re sent back out,” said Mitchell Sims, the county’s emergency management director. “We’re rescuing people from cars, from rooftops, from all over the place.
“I think we’re going to be dealing with this for days. I don’t know where the water’s going to go. Everything is saturated.”
Cops and firefighters in Louisville, Miss., were still on a desperate search for a missing 8-year-old boy Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The boy has been missing since Monday night, when a tornado destroyed his home and killed his parents.
While rescuers still hold hope of finding the boy, they’re calling the search a “recovery.”
“We will overcome this,” Louisville Mayor Will Hill said. “We’re going to work together.”
Hail storms knocked out power to 4,842 in Franklin County, in central Ohio, late Tuesday.
And just to the north in Bellville, Ohio, winds from a powerful tornado Tuesday night lifted a mobile home off its foundation and flipped it upside down.
Amazingly, an elderly woman inside survived and was listed in stable condition at a nearby hospital, according to the Mansfield News Journal.