Child Believed Missing After Devastating Tornadoes in South

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iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A 2-year-old child is believed to be among the missing after a series of deadly tornadoes wreaked havoc in parts of the South this weekend, according to authorities.

More than a dozen people died over the weekend from the devastating twisters and many more lost homes in the destruction.

“We have people who have no home, no food, no warmth, and no hope,” Chris Cohilas, a commissioner in Dougherty County in south Georgia, told the press Monday.

“It is total devastation and destruction,” said Ron Rowe, emergency medical services director in the city of Albany in Dougherty County. “We have multiple neighborhoods that have totally been ‘removed,’ if I can use that word.”

Cohilas said authorities began searching for a 2-year-old child after a mother reported the youngster missing.

The mother “reported her 2-year-old child had been swept away during the tornado,” he said.

The tornadoes wreaked havoc from early Saturday through Sunday in areas from Mississippi to the Florida Panhandle, parts of Alabama and south Georgia.

He added that an active search-and-rescue effort was underway in the county, led by state and local law enforcement, but that resources were limited, and that the country needed help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We’ve been begging for FEMA’s help,” Cohilas said. “To get caught up in bureaucratic red tape during this time of human suffering is disgraceful. I would ask President Trump take significant steps to remove the bureaucratic red tape and get us some people on the damn ground.”

The president expressed condolences to the people affected by the tornadoes on Sunday.

“I want to start off by telling you I just spoke with Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia, great state, great people,” Trump said Sunday from the White House. “Florida affected, Alabama affected by the tornadoes, and just expressed our sincere condolences for the lives taken.”

Trump added that the tornadoes “were vicious and powerful and strong.”

“So we’ll be helping out the state of Georgia,” Trump added.

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