Trees in Claiborne County blocked roads for 16 hours|[04/08/08]

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The tornadoes that ripped through Warren County Friday, producing high winds, heavy rains and extensive damage also played a hand in downed trees in the northeastern portion of Claiborne County.

No reports of injuries or damage to homes were reported to the county’s civil defense operation, employee Ray Coleman said this morning. But, the strong winds did cause trees to fall and block roads, said road manager Alonzo Jones.

“We had a lot of trees across the road. We probably had about 75 trees down,” he said. “It took 16 hours to clear the roads.”

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Don Arnold, a spokesman with Entergy, said power outages were sparse, if any.

“There might have been some just over the Warren County line, but the city of Port Gibson had no damage,” he said.

Jones said the strong winds picked up as they crossed the Big Black River into the county taking trees and limbs out in their path.

The storms that hit Vicksburg just before noon were confirmed to have produced at least two tornadoes, one that marked a 4-mile path through the Eagle Lake community and another that took a 2-mile path between Vicksburg and Bovina. Winds were clocked at 105 mph and 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service. The twisters and straight-line winds caused trees to fall, which resulted in half of Entergy’s 25,000 local meter connections losing service.

No damage was reported in Sharkey and Issaquena counties, both of which received only heavy rains as a result of the storm.