Storm chaser recalls devastating weekend storms
SAN ANTONIO (KABB) — Severe storms in the southwest this weekend left countless homes and businesses severely damaged. A group of Texas storm chasers helped rescue people from the wreckage after counting down the hours before storms touched the ground.
"We saw it happen for days and we knew it was going to happen we just didn't know where," said Adonis Lee, who has been storm chasing since 2017. Lee is with the Texas Vortex Storm Chase Team, and says he has never seen the intense devastation when he traveled to Mississippi over the weekend.
Lee says the storm broke through with power, "we tracked it all the way back from central Louisiana until it crossed the Mississippi and then [snaps] turned on lights and just went bonkers."
The Vortex team saw destruction firsthand in Silver City, Rolling Fork and Amory, Mississippi.
You could hear the roar of the tornado as you got closer to it and you knew right then, especially when you saw the power flashes, you knew it was a big tornado," says Lee, recounting the harrowing moments when he saw the devastation himself... I saw a couple of the slabs completely wiped off the of the foundation."When Lee and his team saw how bad the wreckage was, he says they went into survival mode. Scouring block after block, hoping to save as many people as possible.
Lee says in one home, they found 12 people that needed to be rescued, but he soon lost count after a while.
"The first of three houses was an elderly lady and her daughter, that was two people, the second house was a dad and his daughter, that was four people, and then the 12 people out the last, so you can add up 16."
Lee expects to go back to Mississippi later in the week, but expects the recovery to be completely heartbreaking, "I wouldn't be surprised if we're still finding people 2 or 3 days later."
As of Tuesday, the death toll from the weekend stood at 26 people.
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