Severe, Raging Storms Continue Rip Apart the US South
Pastor Dale Morgan
Severe, Raging Storms Continue Rip Apart the US South*
By RON HARRIST,
Associated Press Writer
JACKSON, Miss. - Strong raging thunderstorms toppled trees, knocked out
power and damaged homes Friday across the South, while flooding in
Kentucky forced evacuations and left a 2-year-old girl dead.
In Mississippi, fast-moving storms unleashed tornadoes, heavy rain and
huge hail stones. 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 at some
point Friday, mostly in and around Jackson, said company spokesman
Checky Herrington.
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 issued a string of severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings
through the evening. No touchdowns were confirmed.
School systems throughout the Birmingham area dismissed students ahead
of a wave of storms Friday.
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.
Winds ripped off roofs in Columbia, La., and thousands of people lost
power in the northeastern part of the state.
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.