At least 17 people were injured in a severe, overnight storm that barreled through the Starkville, Monroe County and Yazoo City areas, downing power lines, uprooting trees and damaging property.
Seven people were injured in Starkville when a series of severe storms, including a possible tornado, tore through.
The “potent” storm, which may have sparked several tornadoes, knocked a tree through the roof of a brick house near The Pines Manufactured Home Community off South Louisville Street, near Starkville High School, trapping and reportedly injuring several people, said Alan Campbell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson.
Much of the damage occurred on the south side of Starkville. Dozens of homes were damaged in The Pines. Several units were overturned, trash cans, branches, porches and other debris lined the streets and lots, and residents wandered about this morning as Starkville Police Department officers patrolled the area. Police only let residents back in to gather clothes and other belongings.
Standing on Louisville Street this morning, Tara Savilla, who is staying with her daughter, Tashina, on nearby Helen Circle, said she heard what sounded like a tornado Monday night. The pair hid in a bathroom until it sounded like the worst of it was over, she said.
“We heard it come over,” Savilla said. “We just thought we were gone. I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. It was scary.”
Less than a quarter of a mile away, at 909 S. Louisville St., Brady Clark stood outside his house this morning and surveyed the downed trees and branches on his home and yard. The storm Monday night was nerve-wracking for Clark and his seven children, he said.
“We heard the wind blowing and looked out the door and stuff was flying everywhere, lightning was flashing and lights were flickering,” Clark said. “Trying to gather my kids was the only thing going through my mind.”
Damage also was reported in other areas of the city, including the Pleasant Acres community off South Montgomery Street. Portions of the city lost power, as well.
Oktibbeha County Coroner Michael Hunt said seven people were admitted to OCH Regional Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries sustained during the storm. They all have been discharged, he said. No deaths were reported.
Authorities said some of the mobile homes were even tossed from their foundations.
“We can’t confirm whether it was a tornado, but it’s what’s expected based on what is being seen on radar,” said Daniel Lamb, also a NWS meteorologist in Jackson.
A survey team should make the final determination on whether a tornado touched down later today, Campbell said. A team in Starkville said that their preliminary investigation showed that a tornado indeed touched down at The Pines, most likely a high EF-1.
The last time a tornado was confirmed to have touched down in the Golden Triangle area was in April, when a severe storm ravaged several counties in Mississippi, and killed 12 people.
Monroe County destruction
A tornado also reportedly touched down near Old Highway 25 and Ivy Drive in Monroe County, north of Aberdeen, at about 11:30 p.m. Monday, said County Sheriff Andy Hood.
Eight people, some of whom had been trapped in the wreckage, were taken to the emergency room at Gilmore Memorial Regional Medical Center in Amory, Hood said. From there, one victim was airlifted to Memphis, where he was being treated for internal bleeding in his head.
“We’ve got mobile homes that are completely destroyed,” Hood said. “There’s a lot of damage down here.”
Hood said the mobile homes looked like they were “torn to pieces” and that trampolines and household items had been blown into the tops of trees.
The NWS at Jackson had not confirmed whether a tornado touched down in the area yet.
In Lowndes County, the storm damage was relatively minor. Columbus Fire & Rescue did not respond to any storm-related calls overnight and Columbus Light & Water General Manager Todd Gale said no significant power outages were reported.
Mud from a nearby incline did slide down onto the First Baptist Church construction site but did not caused major damage, said Columbus Police Public Information Officer Terrie Songer.
“We’re extremely lucky,” she said.
Crews at Four County Electric Power Association worked through the night to restore outages, mostly in Clay County, a company spokesman said.
“The majority of the damage was in Clay County, with some damage in the Monroe County area,” 4-County Manager of District Operations Cliff Wall said this morning. Trees and limbs on power lines were the culprits in most instances, he added. “We really fared well as compared to what it could have been. We were lucky.”
The biggest damage to the system was in Clay County where two poles were broken, lines were down and a transformer was damaged, the association said. There were also scattered outages in Choctaw, Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Monroe counties. Virtually all 4-County customers were receiving power this morning, officials said.
Clay County Chief Investigator Ramirez Williams said no one had been reported injured, although a mobile home had been damaged and a couple of sheds had been destroyed.
Possible tornado hits Yazoo City
Tornado watches were posted across southern Louisiana, much of Mississippi and Alabama and into Tennessee as the storms moved east this morning.
On Battle Street in Yazoo City, a possible twister late Monday ripped the tarp off 63-year-old Clarence Taylor’s roof, which had been damaged by the April tornado.
“It looks like a war zone now,” he said Tuesday morning, pulling a slow drag off a cigarette, then looking around at the power lines dangling from broken poles and pieces of tin scattered about from nearby buildings.
Taylor said the tornado sounded like a bomb and he bolted down the street to check on his 93-year-old mother a few doors away. The wind blew him down, but he made it to her house and found her unhurt.
“I’m blessed, man. I’m blessed,” Taylor said.
Buildings were heavily damaged in downtown Yazoo City, where workers rushed to repair traffic signals near the courthouse square Tuesday morning.
A large tree on the courthouse lawn was uprooted, falling between the two story white building and a war memorial for local veterans. An American flag and the pole from which it hung was twisted among the broken branches.
A few shingles blew off the courthouse and some windows were blown out, but the building was otherwise unscathed.
“We’re just in tornado alley,” said John Richardson, a court bailiff and reserve officer with the Yazoo County Sheriff’s Department. More than 200 homes in Yazoo City were damaged or destroyed in the April tornado. “We come out good on this one compared to the last one.”
Business owners on historic Main Street tried to salvage merchandise from rain water that pushed through broken windows and damaged roofs.
Water was still dripping from the ceiling at Grace Hardware, housed in a building built in 1904, as friends of owner Susan Cartwright Guion helped load merchandise onto a truck. Despite being called a hardware store, the owners make custom furniture and sell antiques and art. Guion said the building was featured in the film “Oh Brother Where Art Thou.”
“It’s been here a long, long time, but now it has no roof and we have no insurance,” she said.
In central Louisiana, a tornado destroyed a brick house and damaged three other homes near the town of Atlanta as a front with thunderstorms moved across the region from Monday into Tuesday. No one was hurt, the Winn Parish sheriff’s office said.
The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway near New Orleans was closed for a time because of high winds. About 1,300 people in the city’s central business district lost power, but it has since been restored.
Winds gusting to near hurricane-force in Alabama knocked down trees and prompted some schools to cancel or delay classes.
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