ROLLING FORK, Miss. — James Anderson was in bed when he heard the tornado’s roar. Startled, Anderson, 61, rolled onto the floor just as his home’s windows exploded under the pressure of the storm.
It “sounded like someone had a machine gun,” he said.
Through the chaos, he shouted for his sister, Barbie Anderson, to grab her grandchildren — an infant and a 7-year-old — and run. Barbie pulled them into a hallway, shielded their bodies with hers and prayed.
“Lord,” she pleaded, “please take care of us.”
The Andersons’ lives were spared, and their small brick home was left standing. But in a small Delta town of about 2,000 people, hardly anyone escaped the storm without losing someone they knew or loved. As rescue and recovery crews poured into town, James Anderson learned that his fiancée’s adult daughter, April Johnson, was one of at least 26 people killed in the storm. She'd been working at the local Family Dollar when the roof collapsed, Anderson said.
His fiancée will be left to care for Johnson’s five children.
“The grandmother now has to be the mother all over again,” he said.
