LaReeca Rucker
The Clarion-Ledger
From the archives April 28, 2010
Debris, downed trees, and damaged homes and businesses stretch along the roughly seven miles from Possumneck to Hesterville.
County emergency officials said about 100 homes have some structural damage from Saturday’s storm.
Tim and Sandra Cook had completed the finishing touches last week on their year-old, two-story, brick home in Possumneck, a community about 10 miles northwest of Kosciusko.
And as soon as things were in perfect order, an EF4 tornado blew through, snapping trees and sucking off the sides of the Cooks’ kitchen and den.
Fortunately, the couple was golfing and visiting relatives in Kosciusko at the time.
On Tuesday, Tim’s parents, Daisy and Kermit Cook, were keeping watch on the residence where a couch was found sitting on top of a kitchen island.
An antique clock that once belonged to Kermit Cook’s grandmother was destroyed, and a twisted ceiling fan with only four remaining blades dangled in front of a fireplace in the now-open den.
“The kitchen table was big enough for the whole family. (The tornado) took the table out and scattered it all around down there,” Cook said, pointing to the foot of a small hill outside the home.
The storm leveled trees and damaged other homes in Possumneck. Tuesday, electricity crews drove past splintered trees to restore power lines.
“We’ve got most of them up,” said DeWalt Carter, an employee with Central Electric Power Association.
In Hesterville, Travis Mann stood outside his Attala Road home. Mann wasn’t aware of the storm until a friend called him and said, ‘Y’all better get your rumps gone.’ “
“We just rode it out,” he said. “We put the grandkids (ages 7 and 9) in the hallway and put pillows over them. We are very lucky.”
Since then, Mann has worked to clear the roads until crews arrived, and he’s helped neighbors clean their property.
“It took one of my sheds away and damaged another one,” he said. “We are just lucky it didn’t tear my house up, but I wouldn’t worry about that as long as my wife and grandkids are OK.”
Just up the road, a travel trailer was overturned in front of a white frame house, and debris was scattered around the rental property owned by Gay Carter, who was out back on his tractor, clearing limbs.
Carter was working at his Kosciusko restaurant, The Place For Fish, when the storm hit.
“It got my roof and my big pecan tree,” he said. “That pecan tree was almost 100 years old.
“But I’m in better shape than a lot of people. My brother-in-law lost his meat processing shop and half of the shingles on his house.”
Down the road, Jamie Yates cleared debris from the roof of a white Attala Road home.
“I’m still in a state of shock,” said Yates, who lives less than a mile from the property. “This was my mom and dad’s place. They are both deceased, and nobody lives in it. It’s been empty about a year. This is going to be a total loss.”
Yates was at a Walmart when the storm struck. Afterward, he had to saw through trees in the backyard and kick the door in to get inside.
“It’s just like it wasn’t true,” he said. “It’s like a dream you never wake up from. I’m just glad my mother and daddy weren’t here to see this. Where they are, they don’t have to worry about it.”