Hernando starts storm cleanup

Photo credit: City of Hernando 

Hernando city officials Monday said the hardest-hit parts of the city from Sunday’s severe storms was the area northeast of the Courthouse Square in the general areas of Northern Street, Valley Street, and Northview Street.  

In particular, the east side of Northern Street, or East Northern Street, is the area in greatest need, according to city officials.  

Although not confirmed, the storm that struck Hernando early in the early morning hours Sunday was initially described as either a tornado or microburst. The National Weather has not announced how it is categorizing the storm.  

In another report, the city thanked Papa John’s Pizza and Crossroads Title for donating pizza and food for city residents in need.  

As of 9 p.m. Monday, Hernando still has 99 customers without power, according to the Entergy Outage Map. There were 127 Entergy customers in DeSoto County without electric service, Entergy said.   

Monday evening, Mayor Chip Johnson reported that Commerce Street had been cleared and was open to traffic . Johnson also expressed thanks to those who have chipped in to help in the clean up.

“Just getting home and am so thankful for all of the employees of Hernando, the DeSoto County Road Department and our citizens who pitched in to help their neighbors,” Johnson said. “But tonight I want to give a special shout-out to the employees in the Hernando Public Works Department. They have been hammered this entire year with storm after storm after storm. It seems like they go from one emergency to the next and overtime is just a regular week for them. I am always proud of their work ethic, but the past two days they have been rock stars! I am thankful to have such a great team working for the citizens of Hernando.”