A mighty wind blowing through the area Sunday took down trees, damaged buildings and knocked out power throughout Leflore County.
Crews from Greenwood Utilities remained busy this morning cleaning up the damage left by fallen trees on Poplar Street that knocked out power to much of North Greenwood Sunday.
Other outages, also caused by fallen limbs and downed trees, struck in the Glendale Subdivision southeast of Greenwood and in Itta Bena.
Gusts of wind — reportedly hitting as high as 50 miles per hour in some areas of the county — blew through the area at around 2 p.m.
In North Greenwood, a large oak tree came crashing down along Poplar Street between Barton and Jeff Davis avenues, taking two utility poles down, according to Larry Griggs, vice president for operations at Greenwood Utilities.
Griggs said about 1,500 customers lost power as a result of the downed lines. He said power was restored for about 1,000 of those customers around 5:30 p.m., but for the remainder, the lights remained off until 11:30 p.m.
Elsewhere in Greenwood, downed limbs on West Monroe Avenue took out power to about 50 customers for a little over three hours, Griggs said.
Fred Randle, director of the Greenwood-Leflore County Emergency Management Agency, said power outages also were reported in Itta Bena. Randle said the wind had taken down trees on Freedom and College streets and that the Leflore County Unit System’s barn in Itta Bena was damaged after tin sheets on the roof were blown away.
Large trees were also reported down in Morgan City and in Money. Randle said Leflore County firefighters and sheriffs deputies were able to clear the trees off power lines and the roadways Sunday, though a building along County Road 559 near Money was damaged when a large limb fell on its roof.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
