KLAS

Only on 8: Las Vegas man mourns family killed in massive Mississippi tornado

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A local man shared his shock and grief with 8 News Now Thursday, nearly a week after he said his sister was killed in a tornado in Mississippi. 

Charles Harris Junior, who lives in North Las Vegas, said he was on his way home to Rolling Fork and got the news of the devastating storm when he touched down Friday night. 

“He said we were just hit by a tornado,” Harris recalled of a conversation with family. “And everything is gone.”

Harris Jr. said his sister, 59-year-old Dolores Harris was one of 26 killed in the devastating storm that swept through the area. 

He told 8 News Now her house was lifted into the air and destroyed while she was inside it. 

“He said he was calling her name and looking for her,” Harris Jr. said. “And he said she was just lying on the ground.”

40 members of his family have also lost everything, according to Harris Jr., as his hometown is now reduced to rubble. 

“There was just debris everywhere, there were no buildings,” he recalled of driving through the area after the storm hit. “I was born and raised there, and I could not recognize a street, it was like I was in a foreign land.”

According to The National Weather Service, the EF-4 tornado formed from a supercell storm, known as the least common but the most destructive. 

Officials said it traveled 59 miles at a width of a quarter of a mile and was on the ground for over an hour. The storm had wind speeds up to 170 mph.

Harris Jr. said he is now doing everything he can to help his loved ones and everyone else in the town of Rolling Fork start over. 

“It’s a helpless feeling because no one knows where they are going to be living,” he explained. “No one knows where their next meal is coming from.”

He called this an overwhelming tragedy that no one could have ever expected. 

“I don’t think this town will ever be what it was,” Harris Jr. concluded. “And I think it’s going to take years.”

Charles has started a GoFundMe to help his family start over after the storm’s devastation.