4 confirmed MS tornadoes, 1 dead
One person is dead and at least four tornadoes have been confirmed after storms swept through Mississippi Tuesday and Wednesday.
Malary White, external affairs director for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said officials are still reviewing assessments from various counties.
“This is very, very preliminary and can definitely change,” White said.
Early reports indicate at least four tornadoes have been confirmed. White said the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency is waiting to get confirmation on 14 other possible tornadoes from the National Weather Service.
Joanne Culin, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said assessment teams were sent to Lincoln, Simpson and Marion counties Thursday to survey the extent of damage caused by the severe weather.
A preliminary survey from the National Weather Service in Jackson did find an EF1 tornado had touched down in Lincoln County just east of Brookhaven. Officials said wind speeds reached 95 miles per hour.
According to a Tweet by the National Weather Service in New Orleans Thursday, an EF0 tornado was confirmed in Wilkinson County, with winds reaching speeds of 85 miles per hour.
An EF1 tornado touched down briefly in southern Copiah County near the village of Beauregard Tuesday evening, with wind speeds reaching at least 100 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service in Jackson.
The National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, had survey teams in Wayne County assessing the damage caused by the tornado, but could not yet confirm its strength.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol reported there were at least 28 crashes on the state’s interstates and highways related to the weather. Of those, there were six injuries and one fatality in Adams County.
According to a Mississippi Highway Patrol news release, Montreal E. Swazy, 25, of Natchez, was driving on US 61 near Morgantown Road when his car hydroplaned, crashing into a tree. Swazy received fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
White said about 15 residential areas, including trailers, homes and apartments, sustained some type of damage from the storms. While there were both minor and major damages to the various homes, none was destroyed, she said.
White said about 60 homes were estimated to be damaged in Clay County and downed trees were reported in both Oktibbeha and Hinds counties.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians reported there were downed trees with damage to power lines, according to White.
Around 4,200 homes and business were without power at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, according to Poweroutage.us, although the number decreased to 2,384 by 2:15 p.m.
Mara Hartmann, spokesperson for Entergy, said approximately 8,500 customers were without power around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Most of the outages were restored Thursday morning and those still without power are in areas were the damage was more extensive, she said.
High winds were still causing issues Thursday afternoon, but Hartmann said they expect to restore power to a majority customers by late Thursday evening. Some parts of Attala, Pike and Hinds counties might not have power until some time Friday.
“We dodged a bullet, we all know that,” Hartmann said. “We’re fortunate that we had as few outages as we did.”
The Jackson metro area and Kosciusko had the most outages, according to Hartmann.
She added she couldn’t give approximate restoration times for those still without power, as there were some technical difficulties with the outage map.
Contact Gabriela Szymanowska at gszymanowska@gannett.com, or on Twitter.