A tornado warning was issued Wednesday for parts of south Mississippi as severe weather swept across the Pine Belt, with residents in Marion, Jefferson Davis, Lawrence and Lincoln counties urged to take cover until 11:45 p.m. Storm shelters opened in the area after a tornado watch was posted around 2:30 p.m., and the day’s threat quickly turned into damage, outages and injuries.
Lamar County Sheriff Danny Rigel said three people were injured in the area and no fatalities had been reported. One of the injuries involved a firefighter using a chainsaw while clearing a roadway, he said, adding that most of the affected roads were down to one lane and that the county’s emergency management agency building, including the 911 dispatch center, had damage. Crews were expected to be out for a while, and Rigel said the area had “dodge a bullet.”
The weather emergency came after WDAM 7’s First Alert Weather declared a First Alert Day for the Pine Belt because of the severe threat on Wednesday. PowerOutage.us showed 1,098 customers without electricity in Jefferson Davis County, and the Dixie Community Utility Association issued a boil water notice for the northeast section of Dixie in Forrest County after a lightning strike hit its main water line. School districts also moved quickly to adjust: Lamar Christian School said it would be closed Thursday and Friday because of loss of power and notable damage on campus, while Lamar County Schools said Purvis and Baxterville would operate on a two-hour delay Thursday. Buses were to run where it was safe, though service could be limited by debris and downed power lines. Sumrall, Oak Grove and Lumberton schools remained on normal schedules.
The warning and the damage left much of the Pine Belt facing the same immediate question: how fast crews can clear roads, restore power and get schools and emergency systems back to normal after a storm that passed close enough to cause injuries, but not the worst-case loss officials feared.
