Damages, widespread power loss reported from Saturday storms

Published 2:01 pm Monday, December 30, 2024

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NATCHEZ — Tornadoes had been spotted as storms hammered the east-central Mississippi region hard on Saturday afternoon. At least 44 tornadoes had been reported across the southern United States, including at least six that touched down in Mississippi, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency confirmed.

One of these destroyed a church and a mobile home in Franklin County.

MEMA reported at least 10 injuries and two storm-related fatalities, including 18-year-old Ty’Keria Rogers of Natchez who’s home was crushed by a fallen tree and an elderly woman in Lowndes County who required oxygen and lost power and could not survive the medical emergency.

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Sheriff Tom Tindle told news outlets that one person was hurt in Franklin County after a mobile home flipped upside down. Several other people suffered minor injuries in the Berrytown community and in McCall Creek on Highway 84.

Tindle said a house and church were also destroyed and that several homes in the county had roof damage.

In Adams County, at least 10 homes reported some type of damage, including two houses that suffered tree damage, according to Adams County Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford. These were on Myrtle Drive and on Westwood Road where Rogers’ family lived.

Natchez Police Chief Cal Green said two other people inside the home made it out safely.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Green said of the incident. “It’s so devastating.”

At the height of the storm, Entergy reported nearly 3,000 customers in Adams County lost power. Additionally, over 4,200 Southwest Mississippi Electric Cooperative members in Adams County lost power. Over 2,100 in the county still did not have power on Monday morning.

Fallen trees blocking roadways had been reported on North Shields Lane, Steamplant near East Wilderness Road, U.S. 84 and John R. Junkin Drive, across U.S. 61 South in the Kingston area, 350 Foster Mound Road, just past Holstead on Palestine Road and on Booker Road.

Most of the weather threat was out of the Adams County area as of 8 p.m. Saturday, according to the National Weather Service, though power loss and fallen trees continued to impact driving conditions.

In Concordia Parish, more fallen trees and power lines and some damages in Ridgecrest and Monterey but no injuries have been reported, Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office public information director Brandy Spears said.

The old bait shop on Highway 131 outside of Vidalia was damaged and a carport ripped off of a house on Patsy Brown Road in Monterey. A portable building was picked up and set back down in the middle of U.S. 84 and then disintegrated, Spears said. A CPSO deputy also had a tree fall on his personal vehicle at his house in Vidalia, she said.