Storms
Severe Storms Rip Through the South
Sharon
Walker checks on some farm equipment that was stored in a metal shed behind
her barn in Limestone County, near Athens, Ala., Friday, April 4, 2008. Waves
of strong thunderstorms toppled trees and power lines across north and west
Alabama on Friday, damaging homes and businesses and prompting schools to
dismiss thousands of students early as a precaution. Forecasters issued a
string of tornado warnings through the afternoon. No touchdowns were
confirmed. (AP Photo/The Decatur Daily, Gary Cosby Jr.)
By Gary Cosby Jr (AP) Published: 2008-04-04
found at southernledger.com
Location: JACKSON, Miss.
Strong thunderstorms toppled trees, knocked out power and damaged homes
Friday in Mississippi and Alabama, while flooding in Kentucky forced evacuations
and left a 2-year-old girl dead.
Across Mississippi, fast-moving storms unleashed possible tornadoes, heavy
rain and some hail. Power failures were reported in several communities,
including near downtown Vicksburg and in Jackson.
Tate Moudy of Brandon had just walked into the Southern States Utility
Trailer Sales office on U.S. Highway 49 in Richland after showing a trailer to a
customer when "there was a big bang from a transformer being knocked out
and debris started flying through the front door."
The powerful storm overturned 18-wheeler trailers, ripped away part of the
roof of the sales office and twisted beams in the building, Moudy said.
Employees and others had to remain inside because power lines had fallen across
vehicles parked in the lot.
"It was scary, I can tell you that," he said.
The American Medical Response ambulance service, which serves a number of
counties in the Jackson area, handled at least 20 storm-related injuries,
company spokesman Jim Pollard said. He said he had no immediate information on
the nature of the injuries.
At least 90,000 customers of Entergy Mississippi lost power Friday, mostly in
and around Jackson, said company spokesman Checky Herrington. It will probably
be Monday before power is restored to all, Herrington said.
Charles Ware of Canton said he was in his car outside a Home Depot when winds
smashed the window of his vehicle and tossed around shopping carts.
"The whole thing was like being in a silent movie," he told the
Clarion-Ledger of Jackson. "Your adrenaline is flowing so much you can see
all this stuff but you don't hear anything."
Amid scattered damage in north Alabama, no injuries were reported, but
forecasters said tornadoes would be a threat for hours in central counties.
School systems throughout the Birmingham area dismissed students ahead of a wave
of storms.
Falling trees struck several houses and a nursing home in Cullman, and
authorities ordered an evacuation of everyone within a half-mile radius of a
downtown area where a gas leak was reported. Workers contained the leak but
feared fuel had reached the city's storm sewers.
Power was out throughout town, and officials urged the city's 14,000
residents to conserve water because the treatment plant couldn't operate.
"It came up on us so quickly. Everything happened at once," said
Leanne Collins, who works at City Hall.
In Colbert County, emergency management director Mike Melton said power lines
and trees were down in a wide area. "There's about a four-mile path of
damage," he said.
In Kentucky, rivers and streams surged over their banks as rainfall reached a
half-foot in some areas.
Two-year-old Kate Hearod died Friday after her mother rounded a curve before
dawn in western Kentucky, drove into high water and lost control of her vehicle,
state police said.
Heather Hearod, 22, of Hampton, was able to get out of the vehicle and
retrieve her daughter, but as the mother struggled to get out of the floodwaters
she became separated from her child and lost sight of her, said state police
Trooper Stu Recke. The girl was found nearby and died later at a hospital, he
said.
In and near Little Rock, Ark., residents used chainsaws, backhoes and elbow
grease to clean up from its latest bout of bad weather _ a tornado that swept
through Thursday night.
At the North Little Rock Airport, a single-engine Cessna lay on its nose
propeller against a fuel truck near the runway Friday. The winds also tore into
one metal-sided hangar and cut across the runway heading northeast.
Near Benton, southwest of Little Rock, a dozen homes were destroyed at
Hurricane Creek Mobile Home Park _ one of them by a fire that erupted when a
felled tree caused a gas leak. Emergency workers had trouble responding because
downed power lines and trees blocked the main road in.
Benton police Capt. Roger Gaither said 70 trailers suffered some sort of
damage.
"It's amazing. It's just totally amazing that no one was really
hurt," Gaither said.
___
Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala., Bruce Schreiner in
Louisville, Ky., and Jon Gambrell in Cammack Village, Ark., contributed to this
report.
