LaReeca Rucker
The Clarion-Ledger
From the archives Jan. 22, 2010
Betty Cox and her two sons stood outside her Monticello Road home Thursday pondering the force of nature that blew a 10-foot metal cattle feeder 300 yards from a neighbor’s home to the base of a large uprooted tree in her yard.
A one-mile radius of Copiah County just outside Hazlehurst was the epicenter of an EF2 tornado that blew through the area Thursday morning.
The National Weather Service says the tornado began 2.5 miles southeast of Hazlehurst and traveled four miles. With maximum winds of 115 mph, a path length of 3.9 miles and a maximum width of 500 yards, the whirlwind started along James Road.
It traveled northeast and reached its maximum intensity and width crossing Monticello Road, where hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted, including several large hardwoods. A barn was leveled, and at least two power poles were broken.
The tornado continued northeast, crossing Perrett Road and Mississippi 472, snapping and uprooting trees and damaging or destroying several outbuildings. It dissipated shortly after crossing Mississippi 472.
The Cox family surveyed lawn debris outside the white, two-story home Thursday afternoon, recalling how quickly it all happened.
“It came through and was gone in a flash,” said Terry Cox. “It was a couple minutes of hard blowing and rain.”
The home sustained structural and roof damage. Two outside buildings were destroyed. At least 15 trees were downed, and an awning between the house and tractor shed was ripped off.
Terry Cox said the experience has taught him that, “Even if you have a weather radio, you still need to seek shelter in a hurry” when a storm comes.
Crews worked to restore electricity in the Monticello/James Road areas Thursday, and residents collected tree limbs and other debris from their yards.
Only a few shingles were blown from Jim Dunlap’s James Road home, so he walked next door to help a neighbor, Casey McCordle.
“It wasn’t too bad,” Dunlap said. “We lucked out. As soon I got up, got my shoes on and headed out the door, it blew through.”
Next door, trees were scattered. The wind blew the door off a shed behind McCordle’s white frame house, and tin was blown off the roof.
“When that tin came flying off of the house, the sound just magnified, and you kept wondering, ‘What’s coming? What’s coming?'” she said. “Then it was over, and there was an eerie silence.
“We’re lucky nobody got hurt. All I can say is God was with us last night. I will take weather warnings more seriously from now on.”
McCordle later drove across the road to Celeste and Lee Caro’s residence, where sunlight illuminated a serene pond in their green pasture – a dramatic contrast from their morning experience.
“Let me know if you find a garbage can that isn’t yours,” McCordle yelled to Celeste Caro, who stood at the front door.
“We were just sitting and waiting for it (the storm) to pass when my oldest son said, ‘Do I hear a train?” Caro recalled. “Then it passed before we could take shelter.”
The co-owner of Caro Farms Inc. said she’s thankful the tornado didn’t destroy her home, but it damaged two chicken houses and two sheds that housed tractors and farming equipment.
“It tossed around everything in them like Tonka toys,” Caro said.
A horse barn was also damaged, but the animals weren’t injured.
Copiah County Sheriff Harold Jones said: “We had several houses that were structurally damaged, but not destroyed.”
Joanne Culin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said numerous showers and thunderstorms moved Wednesday and Thursday through Central Mississippi. Quarter-size hail was reported in Flora and Madison County.
Flash flooding was reported in Madison and Hinds counties and Vicksburg, and wind damage also was reported east of Pocahontas.
“We estimate 60- to 70- miles-per-hour winds around that area,” she said.
Jeff Rent, public information officer for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said no major damage was reported.