Mississippi weatherman Matt Laubhan prays on-air about tornados

A Mississippi meteorologist broke down and prayed as he watched a mile-wide tornado crash into a small town in real time late Friday.

Matt Laubhan of WTVA was reporting on the deadly series of storms that slammed through the Mississippi Delta Friday night, killing at least 24, when he realized the town of Amory was going to take a direct hit.

“‘Oh man, north side of Amory, this is coming in,’” said Matt Laubhan of WTVA just before 11 p.m. on Friday. “‘Oh, man. Dear Jesus, please help them. Amen.’”

Amory, a town with a population of just over 6,000, is located 100 miles west of Birmingham.

Laubhan — an Emmy Award-winning weatherman and Kansas native — got emotional and could hardly look at the camera as he watched the radar to track the storm, which he called “a life-threatening tornado.”

“‘Here’s the thing about this, y’all trust me too much,’ he told viewers during his report. “‘I tell you where it’s going to go and some of you guys are like, ‘That’s where it’s gonna go.’ The reality of this, this could be changing direction. So, Amory, we need to be in our safe place.”