A fast-moving squall line containing powerful supercells moved through Leflore County last night and early this morning, causing downed trees and power lines.
A large portion of Greenwood lost power around 1 a.m.
“It’s fairly isolated. I’ve not gotten a report from Greenwood yet, except what was reported by storm spotters,” said T.W. Cooper, director of the Greenwood-Leflore County Emergency Management Agency.
A large tree fell on Dale Riser’s house at 700 Poplar St.
Riser said this morning that he and his family took to the home’s “tornado closet” when they heard sirens around 10 p.m.
“We were just lucky,” he said.
While the family was huddled in the closet, a 16-inch limb crashed into a false dormer on the front of the house. That caused some water damage in the home’s interior, Riser said.
Cooper said although the storm moved through fairly quickly, lingering high winds caused numerous trees to topple.
Greenwood Utilities was scrambling as crews worked through the storm.
“We should have it 100 percent restored,” said Jesse Ross, vice president of distribution and engineering with the municipally owned utility. “There may be one or two spots that are still without power. All the main breakers are back in.”
At one point, the entire system went down, he said.
“We are tied to Entergy, and they went down. We were able to get some of the customers back online quickly,” Ross said.
With some others, it took as long as three to four hours to restore service, he said.
Cooper said Sidon and Itta Bena also experienced power outages. Cruger, which is supplied power through Sidon, experienced an outage for several hours.
Cooper said in Itta Bena, a large tree fell on a power line, and residents were without power for as long as five hours.
David Cox, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said the squall line that moved through contained embedded supercells.
Supercells are individual storms that group together. “You’ll have multiple storms beside each other and they rotate,” he said.
Cox said a National Weather Service survey team will be in the Delta today to see if there is any evidence of tornadic activity in the region.
K.K. Henderson-Kent, who lives south of Greenwood, said the storm devastated a field of standing corn near her home.
“It looked like somebody went out there and laid it down flat. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Henderson-Kent said.
• Contact Bob Darden at bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
