Tornado Wrecks Buildings in Mississippi

A tornado wreaked havoc on Hattiesburg, Miss., yesterday, injuring at least 13 people as it pummeled buildings and hit a main street. Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency as Forrest County saw hundreds of homes damaged and the University of Southern Mississippi was hit hard, the AP reports. The extent of the damage remains unclear. "It was so strong that there's so much debris that there's a lot of areas (officials) haven't been able to get to yet," said a rep for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

The university's Alumni House lost part of its roof as windows shattered. "I just looked out the window and I heard the rumbling. It sounded like a train," said a neighbor. "We ran to the hall, and the kitchen windows and the windows in the bedroom exploded. It happened pretty fast." Another local found unexplained construction material on his lawn. "I don't even know where it came from," he noted. (More tornado stories.)