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Jones Co. Hit Hard by Storms
May 22, 2009
By Eloria Newell James, community@laurelleadercall.com
March 26, 2009 - “I said ‘oh my God,’” recalled Julia Ducksworth when she heard the tornado and saw the destruction.
Ducksworth, who sits with 102-year-old Mrs. Alusta Wheatley at 696 Summerland Road in the Hatten Community, told of her experience with a shaken voice.
“When I saw all of the damage, I just broke down with happy tears,” Ducksworth recalled as she looked at the damage caused by a tornado that touched down Thursday morning destroying a large portion of Wheatley’s house while Ducksworth and Wheatley were just a few feet away. The storm also completely destroyed Wheatley’s two sheds, a barn and three cars.
“All I could say was ‘Thank You, Jesus.’” Ducksworth recalled. “If it (the tornado) had went over two feet, it would have gotten both of us. ... I’m thankful we got out of there alive.”
Wheatley’s damage is just some of the destruction reported as a result of the early morning storm.
Local and area residents worked to pick up the pieces from Thursday morning’s tornado as weather forecasters warned residents to brace for two more rounds.
At latest count, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency is reporting that 29 homes and two businesses were damaged in Jones County. Three injuries have also been reported in Jones County associated with the storm.
MEMA also reported three homes damaged in Jasper County and one injury.
Members of the Hebron Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Unit responded to the area hit by the tornado around 3 a.m.
“We’ve been here since it hit,” said Charles McDonald, a Hebron VFDR member. “Debris was all across the road.”
Larry Earnest, another Hebron volunteer firefighter, concurred.
“It was bad,” Earnest said. “I’m just thankful no one was critically injured.”
Tammy Wells, 911 administrator with the Jones County Emergency Management Agency, said the first reports of damage came about 3 a.m. Thursday.
Marda Tullos, deputy director of Jones County EOC, said the roof of a house of Wheatley’s house blew off, which resulted in damage to several vehicles. Power lines and trees were also reported down throughout the area, but no injuries were reported.
“People were in the house, but there were no injuries,” Wells said. “At 3:25 a.m., at 1574 Highway 28 West, a trailer blew up and a man was trapped inside. He was gotten out fairly quickly and was taken to the hospital.
“There was definitely a tornado down. A siren was set off at 3 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.,” Wells said. “Soso and Sandersville were both out of power.”
Officials reported that down power lines and trees were also reported on Union Line Road in Soso and a shed blew over.
“Then, on the other side of Jones County, on F.L. Pearson Road, which is off of Masonite Lake Road and Mill Creek Road in the Myrick Community, there were power lines down and damage to several chicken houses,” said Wells. “Also, some residential houses and mobile homes, along with some vehicles were damaged.”
MEMA’s damage reports due to severe weather in the state Wednesday and Thursday reported Mt. Olive in Covington County without power. In Jones County, one home was reported destroyed, two homes with major damage, 18 homes with minor damage, two mobile homes destroyed, nine mobile homes with minor damage, two businesses with minor damage and three injuries. In Jasper County, one home was destroyed, one home major damage, two homes minor damage, one mobile home destroyed and one injury reported.
In Simpson County, MEMA reported 36 homes destroyed, 29 homes with major damage, 50 homes with minor damage, one business destroyed, six businesses with major damage, one church destroyed, on church with major damage and 25 injuries.
Cindy Duvall with Mississippi Power Company, said all Mississippi Power’s customers’ service in Jones County was restored by 8 a.m. Thursday.
“At 7 a.m., there was only one customer out in Jasper County and 20 customers out in Jones County,” Duvall. “Every customer counts and everyone’s electricity was back up at 8 a.m.”
Lydia Walters, manager of member services at Dixie Electric Power Association, said the association had reports of “scattered outages from Hebron to Summerland. We had scattered outages in Soso and north of Laurel and in Myrick.”
Walters said 12 broken poles and large oak trees on power lines resulted in several customers being without power immediately following the storm.
However, all of Dixie Electric’s customers “were restored around lunch time on Thursday,” Walters said.
Terry Temple and Ken Odell, volunteers with the Pine Belt Chapter of the American Red Cross, manned the agency’s Emergency Response Vehicle in the Hatten Community most of the day Thursday.
Peggy Owens-Mansfield with the American Red Cross said because of the residents affected by the storm and the large number of power crews and workers out assisting residents, emergency assistance was needed.
“If the power is off, we are obliged to take care of the people. Once the power comes back on, we don’t normally feed, but we will continue to assess and assist,” she said. “Part of our mission is to take care of the people who are helping to take care of people. ... As far as we know, there was damage in the Hatten Community and the Myrick Community in Jones county.”
Owens-Mansfield said the local Red Cross chapter had 15-20 volunteers working in the area on Thursday.
The Red Cross, numerous members of the various volunteer fire departments, the Jones County Board of Supervisors’ beats, the various EOC officials, law enforcement agencies and the 18th Circuit Court Community Service workers, along with the many neighbors and friends throughout the day Thursday assisted those affected by the storm.
“There’s a lot of different damage. We handle strictly homes and people,” Owens-Mansfield explained. “We only had one house destroyed in Jones County. In Jasper County, we had about eight houses affected and three destroyed in the Garlandville Community in north Jasper County, close to Newton.”
Owens-Mansfield said the local Red Cross chapter’s damage assessment teams will continue to be in Jasper and Jones counties today (Friday).
She said the Red Cross “depend heavily on volunteers,” and are appreciative of the time people donate to help others.
Owens-Mansfield said anyone wanting to make a donation to the Red Cross for this storm or any other storm or disaster can call the local Red Cross at (601) 426-9071.
She said although the local chapter does not cover Magee, her agency has “touched bases with the people in Simpson County, so we may be assisting there also.”
MEMA officials said some joint damage assessments in the hardest hit areas are not yet complete. However, MEMA will continue to provide updates as they become available.
While residents try to recover from Thursday’s storm, weather forecasters warned them to brace for more thunderstorms and the possibility of tornadoes Friday and Saturday mornings.
“We are looking for more of the same that occurred on Thursday morning,” Tullos said. “We are getting a triple whammy. The coming weather has the same risk as (Thursday morning’s) weather. We are expecting strong wind, lots of rain and possible tornadoes.”
Photos
The home of Alusta Wheatley on Summerland Road in Hebron suffered major damage when a tornado came through the area early Thursday morning and trapped Julia Ducksworth and Mrs. Wheatley inside. Larry Earnest, a volunteer firefighter, helped get the pair out of the home.
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