Mississippi tornado leaves several hurt

Trees are uprooted in front of the University of Southern Mississippi on Sunday after a tornado went through Hattiesburg, Miss.
Trees are uprooted in front of the University of Southern Mississippi on Sunday after a tornado went through Hattiesburg, Miss.

— A tornado tore through Hattiesburg on Sunday as part of a wave of severe storms that downed trees, damaged buildings and injured more than a dozen people.

photo

AP

A woman observes the damage a tornado inflicted on a closed and unoccupied dormitory on the University of Southern Mississippi campus in Hattiesburg, Miss., on Sunday.

The twister traveled down one of Hattiesburg’s main streets and mangled homes, commercial buildings and structures on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. Emergency officials said at least 10 people were injured in surrounding Forrest County and three were hurt to the west in Marion County, but they weren’t aware of any deaths.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Greg Flynn said it appears that a single tornado caused the damage in those two counties and Lamar County. Hundreds of homes were damaged in Forrest County, along with a couple dozen in the other two.

Flynn said the sheer scope of the damage was slowing the assessment of damage.

“The problem is, it was so strong that there’s so much debris that there’s a lot of areas they haven’t been able to get to yet,” he said.

On the campus of the university, trees were snapped in half around the heavily damaged Alumni House where part of the roof was ripped away. Windows in a nearby building were blown out, and heavy equipment worked to clear streets nearby in a heavy rain after the worst of the weather had passed.

The university released a statement saying no one was hurt but that it was under a state of emergency.

East of campus, 47-yearold Cindy Bullock was at home with her husband and dog, when she heard the tornado coming. They ran to a hallway and covered their heads. It wasn’t long before the windows in the kitchen and bedroom exploded. The storm stripped all of the shingles off the roof and left holes in it, while knocking over a large pine tree in the yard.

After dark, the Bullocks were trying to arrange their belongings inside so they wouldn’t get wet from the dripping water.

“I just looked out the window and I heard the rumbling. It sounded like a train. We ran to the hall, and the kitchen windows and the windows in the bedroom exploded,” she said.

Large trees blocked the road through her neighborhood. Several houses there were hit by falling trees.

Forrest County Sheriff Billy McGee said 10 or 15 people were injured by the tornado that slammed Hattiesburg and other parts of the county - but none of the injuries was serious.

To the west, Marion County emergency director Aaron Greer said three injuries were reported in the community of Pickwick, about seven miles south of Columbia. He said two people were taken to hospitals.

Greer said one mobile home was destroyed, three other structures sustained major damage and several had minor damage.

Gov. Phil Bryant plans to go to Hattiesburg today to check out damage to the city and the university, spokesman Mick Bullock said.

On Sunday night, John and Katherine Adams were cleaning up around their one story white house where the storm punched holes in the roof, busted windows and destroyed the back porch. The couple was at home with their 7- and 3-year-old daughters when the tornado passed next to their house.

All through the neighborhood, houses and vehicles were damaged by falling trees.

“We’re safe, and that’s all that matters,” said Katherine Adams, 46.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 02/11/2013

Upcoming Events