Daughter: Mississippi tornado victim was 'beautiful soul'
CTV
With her sister behind the wheel, Queen'terica Jones rushed across the flat Mississippi Delta as a powerful tornado bore down on their mother's home. The howling winds lifted the rear of their car off the ground and slammed them into a churchyard.
With her sister behind the wheel, Queen'terica Jones rushed across the flat Mississippi Delta as a powerful tornado bore down on their mother's home. The howling winds lifted the rear of their car off the ground and slammed them into a churchyard.
They arrived too late. The tornado had already killed their mother, ruined her home and devasted the town of Rolling Fork. With no electricity, survivors used cellphone flashlights to pick through the wreckage. Jones said she found her mother's lifeless body face-down in the yard, bloodied by nails that struck her head.
"I wouldn't wish this pain upon nobody, not even an enemy," Jones said Tuesday.
Her mother, Erica "Nikki" Moore, worked as a personal care assistant and is survived by six children. She was "a beautiful soul" who loved to pray and help people, Jones said.
"She was amazing. A sweetheart," Jones said. "I mean, ain't nobody perfect. Everybody goes through something, but our mom -- everybody that's known our mom knows she had a heart of gold."
At least 21 people in Mississippi and a man in Alabama perished as menacing storms tore across the Deep South over the weekend. The toll was especially steep in Sharkey County, in western Mississippi, where Moore was among 13 people who died in a county of 3,700 residents.
County Coroner Angelia Eason said the losses hit the close-knit community hard.
