LIBERTY — A suspected tornado swept through Liberty Tuesday morning knocking down trees and power lines and leaving thousands without power.

Liberty Mayor Ricky Stratton said he received several eyewitness reports of an unconfirmed twister that touched down between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. on the south side of Liberty, one block from Main Street. The storm blew an elevated building off its blocks. Other Amite County buildings also had damage.

“No one was injured, thank the good Lord,” Stratton said.

Civil Defense Director Grant McCurley said roadways in Amite County were scattered with tree limbs and downed power lines.

Crews were working Tuesday to clear trees blocking roadways.

Stratton said 1,100 Liberty residents were without power Tuesday afternoon. Power should be restored by late afternoon.

Entergy Mississippi officials said 2,700 residents were without power at the peak of the storm.

“We shut off a breaker at a substation to kill the power and are working to ground it so our crews can start removing trees from the lines,” said Tim Reynolds, a spokesman for Entergy Mississippi. “We will be asking for additional help from crews from other areas.”

Entergy officials said most of the outages are affecting the Liberty and Centreville areas. About 841 customers in McComb also were without power early Tuesday.

Magnolia Electric Power Association representative Lucy Shell said a downed circuit in Liberty darkened about 457 members of the electric cooperative.

“There is a tree on the line,” she said. “That happened at around 8:30 a.m.”

Shell said there also were outages scattered throughout the Jayess, Norfield and Progress areas.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said damage was reported in nine counties after Monday’s storm system moved through. There were no injuries reported.

MEMA said additional damage assessments are underway.

Officials said the National Weather Service will investigate and confirm reports of any tornadoes.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.