Place sure has had some bad times lately...
Midwest tornadoes kill local man and son on hunting trip; Tallahassee father still missing
Brandon Shields
Jackson Sun
TIPTONVILLE, TENN. – A North Florida family that has already lost two people from the tornado that hit Reelfoot Lake State Park late Friday night is missing a third family member.
Ashleigh Hall said her dad, Jamie Antonio Hall, was one of a group of eight who traveled from Tallahassee to Tiptonville to go duck hunting for the weekend.
“We still haven’t located him or heard from him,” Ashleigh said during a phone interview about 1 p.m on Saturday.
The death toll from a series of tornadoes that roared across at least five states continued to rise Sunday, as somber rescuers picked through the rubble of shattered buildings and communities, searching for survivors and remains.
More than 30 tornadoes were reported late Friday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Kentucky was hardest hit, with at least 70 confirmed fatalities early Sunday, but scores more people were missing and feared dead elsewhere.
Jamie Antonio Hall
Tornadoes:Multiple counties in northwest Tennessee suffer damage from tornadoes Friday night
Jackson weather radar:Track storm forecast and possible tornado warnings
The group from Florida’s capital city was staying at the Cypress Point Resort. A couple hours before the storms got to Lake County, Hall, his brother Steve Gunn and Gunn's young son all went to bed. The other five in the group were getting concerned about the storms and went to the resort's clubhouse to hang out and watch the storm come through, not knowing how big it would be.
“We’re from Florida, so we’re used to staying put during a hurricane, but tornadoes are different, and they didn’t expect a tornado to hit the hotel as directly as it did,” Ashleigh Hall said.
Tornado damage is seen at Cypress Lodge and Resort at Reelfoot Lake State Park in Tennessee on Dec. 11, 2021.
The bodies of Gunn and his son were recovered early Saturday morning. But there’s still no word on Jamie.
Ashleigh said family members were traveling to Tiptonville on Saturday to help look for her father.
“He’s a heavy-set middle-aged Black man, and he was wearing his camouflage duck-hunting gear on Friday,” Ashleigh said. “So hopefully someone can find him and get him back to us."
Hall is a mortgage loan officer at Prime Meridian Bank.
“Jamie Hall is a prince of a man. Literally he’s just good people," Bank CEO and President Sammie Dixon told the Tallahassee Democrat. "We continue to pray for his recovery and we haven’t lost hope.”
Another member of their group identified Gunn and his son at the morgue after their bodies were recovered from the debris of Cypress Point.
“Please continue to keep our family in your prayers as we go through this terrible time,” she told WCTV Sunday morning.
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/ne...ng/6485936001/
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