Heavy rain, floods, even a tornado as storms smack the South

A tornado smashed into a commercial district in the small Mississippi city of Columbus, shattering businesses as severe storms raked the South on a weekend of drenching rains and a rising flood threat.

The tornado that shattered businesses in the east Mississippi city on Saturday afternoon was confirmed on radar, said meteorologist Anna Wolverton with the National Weather Service in Jackson.

She told The Associated Press that experts on Sunday would be headed Sunday to the city of about 23,000 people to gauge the tornado's intensity.

There were no immediate reports of any deaths or injuries.

Lee Lawrence, who said he has been selling used cars for decades in Columbus, told The AP that four buildings on his car lot had been destroyed.

He said trees toppled across vehicles and car windows had been blown out. And he said he had no idea about how badly his collection of antique cars fared. A 1923 Studebaker and a 1930 Chevrolet were among the cars parked amid wind-tossed building debris.

Lawrence said he was at home getting ready to take a bath when the storm struck.

"The wind all of a sudden just got so strong and it was raining so much you could hardly see out the door, and I could hear a roaring. Evidently it came close," he said, speaking with AP in a phone interview.

He said someone called him soon after about the damage to his business and he rushed over.

"It will be a start-over deal," Lawrence said. "I can't say it will come back better or stronger, but we'll come back."