Little damage reported as storms, possible tornado roll through

Published 10:19 am Wednesday, November 30, 2016

A squall line preceding a cold front passed through Warren County Tuesday night, bringing rain, high winds and spawning one tornado.

“We had no report of damage, we were very lucky,” Warren County Emergency Management director John Elfer said. “We had no reports of traffic or other problems here or in the city.”

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Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said his office handled eight storm-related calls involving trees and limbs on county roads. All were cleared by county road crews, he said.

The squall line came on the heels of two Monday storms that also produced high winds and 1.6 inches of rain. Tuesday’s storm hit late Tuesday afternoon, and affected the northern part of the county, bringing rain, high winds and hail to the Redwood area. According to the gauge at Vicksburg’s water treatment plant on Haining Road, the storm dumped .82 inches of rain on the area.

Elfer said the tornado, which hit about 9:30 p.m., touched down in the Chickasaw area, jumped U.S. 61 North, and went east on Mississippi 3 before going back in the sky.

“We had emergency responders who saw it, and (county fire coordinator) Jerry Briggs followed it on Highway 3,” he said. “We had no damage reported from it.”

“It was dark and I really couldn’t see it,” Briggs said. “But I could see the sparks from the transformers as it went along Highway 3. I don’t know if it touched the ground.”

Locally, Entergy reported few outages from the storm, and they were scattered in the county, spokesperson Shelia McKinnis said.

“We had very little damage,” she said Wednesday morning. “Right now, we have 188 customers without power.”

System-wide, she said, Entergy had more than 2,000 customers out across the state.

Storms bring hail, tornadoes across Mississippi

JACKSON (AP) — Thunderstorms produced large hail and tornadoes across parts of Mississippi on Tuesday, as officials warned that severe weather could threaten the state through the night.

The National Weather Service in Jackson said late Tuesday it had counted six confirmed tornadoes so far in the areas of the state it monitors.

Eric Carpenter, with the weather service’s Jackson office, said the office would send out teams Wednesday to survey the damage.

About John Surratt

John Surratt is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a degree in general studies. He has worked as an editor, reporter and photographer for newspapers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post staff since 2011 and covers city government. He and his wife attend St. Paul Catholic Church and he is a member of the Port City Kiwanis Club.

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