It only took about five minutes after a tornado warning was issued Monday night in Columbus for a tree to rip through the roof of Melinda and David Vandiver’s house on Gaylane Drive.
“All I ever heard was a big boom, and that was the tree,” Melinda told The Dispatch.
David said the house could potentially be a total loss after the tree ripped through insulation and caved the roof’s support, allowing water to flood the house’s floor.
“(We’re) going to have to find a place to stay for six months probably, (and) that’s a hard thing to do,” he said.
The Vandiver’s house was part of moderate damage across Lowndes County caused by strong winds, heavy rainfall and hail on Monday night.
The Golden Triangle was under a severe thunderstorm warning at 7:33 p.m., which contained heavy rain, winds up to 60 mph, and golf-ball sized hail. By about 8:45 p.m. Columbus and New Hope were under a sudden tornado warning, according to the National Weather Service.
Cindy Lawrence, emergency management agency director for Lowndes County, said the storm downed trees, power poles and power lines. Two trees fell on homes in Columbus, causing significant damage.
“I tell people you have to be ready at any time, because sometimes you don’t get the lead time on a (tornado) warning,” Lawrence said. “It can happen quick and fast, and that’s exactly what happened (Monday) night.”
Lawrence said between 10 to 12 trees fell, blocking six streets in the city and county including on New Hope, Airline and Mount Vernon roads. Crews had removed those trees and reopened the roads by Tuesday morning.
Jon Turner, communications director for 4-County, said calls reporting power outages starting coming in at about 8 p.m. from customers in Lowndes and Clay counties. At its peak, about 1,400 customers were without power.
“Living in Mississippi … every week it seems like there’s a chance for some kind of severe weather,” Turner said. “You prepare for the worst and hope for the best, and maybe it’s somewhere in the middle. … I mean it could have been a whole lot worse.”
Most of the outages for Lowndes County were reported in New Hope and were in part caused by seven downed electrical poles in the area, Turner said. Power had been restored for those outages by about 1 a.m. Tuesday.
Going forward, he said the co-op is ready for any future weather damage that may come during the spring season.
“We are now entering spring storm season, and so we are ready to go every night,” Turner said. “… We’re watching the weather … and we’re prepared.”
Columbus Light and Water crews were still working Tuesday afternoon to address power outages and downed power lines in at least three areas in the city, according to CLW’s Facebook.
Angela Verdell, CLW general manager, did not respond to questions from The Dispatch regarding the peak number of outages that occurred across CLW’s system Monday night, how many outages total crews were working to address and how many power poles were knocked down.
Lawrence said there currently isn’t an estimation for damages caused by the storm.
While there was still some damage from downed trees and hail across the county, Lawrence said she considers the county to be lucky since a tornado didn’t actually touch down.
“If it had touched down, we would have significant damages this morning,” Lawrence said.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 48 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
