No warning accompanied last week’s strong storm

Published 10:49 am Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The powerful 70-to-80-mile-per-hour straight-line winds that swept through the area last week peaked at approximately 3:45 a.m. Friday, according to a Jackson meteorologist. The storm also dropped close to two inches of rain on the city.

The destruction left by the thunderstorm is still evident across the county as clean up and repairs continue.

“It started as a line of storms in North Mississippi that moved south,” said Brittany Bell, meteorologist with WAPT out of Jackson. She added that her station was not able to issue a severe weather warning because there was no warning issued by the National Weather Service.

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Clifford Galey, Lincoln County Emergency Management director, said that approximately 60 structures in the county were damaged, including 10 homes in the county, 45 homes in the city, one apartment complex and four businesses.

“We did have a special weather statement,” said Joanne Culin, meteorologist with the Jackson office of the National Weather Service. Culin added that at that time of night it is sometimes harder to monitor the weather and anticipate the storm.

“In hindsight, they were severe and there should have been a warning issued,” said Culin.

At the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday, Galey said that the county would not be able to issue a state of local emergency because he does not predict that the damage will amount to the required $3.2 million.

Crews are still working to remove limbs and other wreckage from roads and ditches.

Thousands of residents lost power in Lincoln County Friday morning, but as of 2 p.m. Sunday, everyone that is able to receive power is receiving power according to both Entergy and Magnolia Power. The homes currently without power have damage to the actual hardware on their homes. Sixty-five Entergy poles and 13 Magnolia poles were broken during Friday’s storm.

Bill Howard, with Entergy in Brookhaven, said that there are still cleanup crews working to straighten poles and trim trees. He added that limbs would be cut to prevent outages in the future. Entergy has already replaced 247 spans of wire, the wire between power poles.

He said if any resident sees a hazardous situation, please call 1-800-Entergy.