Daughter: Mississippi tornado victim was ‘beautiful soul’

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG and ROBERT BUMSTED
Associated Press

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Queen’terica Jones found her mother’s lifeless body after a tornado slammed into the rural town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Jones describes her mother, Erica Moore, as a “beautiful soul” and says finding her was terrible. At least 21 people in Mississippi and one in Alabama died in tornados Friday. More than half of those who perished were from Mississippi’s Sharkey County, where Coroner Angelia Eason says it felt like “losing 13 family members.” Neighbors say the Lonnie and Melissa Pierce of Rolling Fork were some of the best people they knew. He was a retired welder, and she volunteered for a Christian charity. The tornado dropped a neighbor’s semi-truck onto their home, killing the couple.