Damage reported from overnight storms
Schools closed, emergency status declared
Photo: A tree felled by Sunday night’s storm damaged this home in Hernando. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
MONDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: DeSoto County Schools announced that due to the emergency status and power outages remaining across a number of school zones, classes were canceled for Tuesday, May 20. As of 5 p.m., 5,285 Entergy Mississippi customers were still without power in DeSoto County.
Some areas in and around Hernando appear to have been hit the hardest from the storms that came through DeSoto County late Sunday night and early Monday morning.
Both the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors and Hernando Board of Aldermen met and declared an emergency status following the storm that blew down trees and power lines, blocked roads, damaged homes and schools. Hernando High School was among the buildings that sustained damage from the storm that brought rain and strong winds. DeSoto County Schools canceled classes Monday due to storm damage and power outages.
Olson said his department was out countywide Monday morning assessing damage. A line primarily from west of Hernando to the east of the city appears to be what got hit the worst from the storm.
“The kind of last microburst area in Hernando seemed like it got hit again,” Olson said. “But then it spread out from that area, as well as east and west of there in the county. If you’re looking at it just kind of west of Hernando, probably, you know, five miles or so, and then it just carried from there.”
Reports were of close to three inches of rain that fell Sunday night and early Monday morning, some of it happening very quickly. The National Weather Service did issue a tornado warning late Sunday night, but Olson said Monday morning a tornado touchdown had not been confirmed as of yet.
“As of this moment, we don’t have confirmation of an actual tornado touchdown,” said Olson. ”We have confirmation that the tornado warning was issued with rotation indicated on radar, but we’re not seeing officially any touchdown area, because it’s so widespread. Trees are falling in the south southeast direction, most of them. So that’s really more of an indicator for straight line wind,” adding the National Weather Service will have the final determination of an actual tornado touchdown.
Some roads were flooded by the rain but quickly cleared. Streams flowing into Arkabutla Lake, such as the Coldwater River, were full Monday morning, Olson said.
Hernando Mayor Chip Johnson explained the state of emergency allowed the city to bring in extra help in the clean up. The emergency meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held around 12 midnight Monday morning.
“This has allowed us to legally call in extra help to clear the city streets this morning,” Johnson said. “Our crews have worked through the night clearing roads. There is much work to be done and we will be cleaning up this mess for days to come.”
Johnson added Entergy is in the process of bringing help in from around the state to restore power.
County supervisors also met Monday in a brief meeting to ratify the county’s emergency declaration to also bring in extra help for the cleanup. They were scheduled to hold its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday but after the declaration adjourned with other meeting items moved to Thursday at 9 a.m. County offices were closed for the day Monday.
Entergy Mississippi reported about 7,000 customers were still without power as of 9:30 a.m. Monday morning. Northcentral Electric Cooperative reported about 52 outages remained at about 7:30 a.m. but crews worked overnight to restore power to affected customers. About 26 outages affecting about 104 members remained about 10:30 a.m. Monday.
Coahoma Electric Power Association said it has been working on power recovery in its area since Friday and last night’s storm has just added to the recovery. Association officials said it could be up to three days for power restoration to some areas, where as many as 38 utility poles were down by the storm in DeSoto and Tunica counties.
The Hernando DeSoto River Park was closed due to downed trees and power lines. The park will reopen once the power company is able to clear the road.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol reported that I-69 near Fogg Road was closed in both directions as of 10 a.m. Monday due to downed power lines.
Entergy and AT&T crews were out working to clear the downed lines so traffic flow on the interstate could be restored.
Residents who sustained damage from the storm are reminded of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency’s Self-Reporting Tool to report that damage to state officials.
Here are some photos of the damage we took in and around Hernando from the storm.
