Storms Cause Damage Around Calhoun County PDF Print E-mail
By JOEL McNEECE
Thunderstorms roared through Calhoun County much of the weekend uprooting trees, downing power lines and causing the postponement of the county’s Relay For Life.
The first serious storm came through Friday evening around 6 p.m. just as the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life was preparing to begin. Organizers made the decision to postpone before it ever officially started as violent lightning strikes appeared in the distance.
Relay officials said they are tentatively looking at dates in August for a potential make-up.
Bob Wells, Bruce PEPA manager, said approximately 1,000 people lost power during the Friday storm, predominantly in the northwest portion of the county.
“It was mostly trees breaking and taking power lines down,” Wells said. “We worked 16 hours straight getting everybody back on line.”
Little to no power outages were reported in the city limits of Bruce, except for a large tree that fell at Dr. Willie Wells’ home in Yancy Subdivision. Wells said it was approximately 45 minutes before the Banner area was restored, and other areas took longer.
concord_church2.jpgDaryl Love, Manager of Natchez Trace Power in Calhoun City, said approximately 450 customers from their branch lost power.
“Everywhere from Bentley to Spring Hill to Grenada Lake,” Love said. “It was mostly trees on lines and we had some lightning strikes to transformers.”
Love said his crews were working more than 20 hours straight to restore power.
“We finished around 2 p.m. Saturday getting everybody back on line,” Love said. “Our Eupora branch was still going at 10 that night.”
Love said they received weather alerts early Friday and tracked the approaching storm all day until it struck.
“We were expecting some nasty weather but you never know exactly what you’re going to get,” Love said. “This one delivered.”
Natchez Trace had four linemen from Houston come over to assist with the power restoration on Saturday. Love said they were also receiving requests for more people in Tippah County.
“We just didn’t have anybody to send,” Love said. We had our hands full here.”
Sunday morning’s storm created more problems on the south side of the county. Love said a power line was taken down at Duncan Hill.
“It was quite a weekend,” Love said. “We certainly appreciate the patience of our customers in these situations.”
Love said the Spring Hill area was likely the hardest hit of the areas they worked. Wells said the Concord area appeared to suffer some of the worst damage among PEPA’s customers.
Wells said Pontotoc and other areas just north of Calhoun reported even more damage.
“We were probably pretty lucky overall,” Wells said.
No tornadoes were officially reported in the county. All the damage has been attributed to straight-line winds in excess of 60 miles per hour in some cases.
Bruce and Chickenbone Fire Departments also responded to an unrelated fire as the storm was moving through the area. The fire turned out to be minor.