McNeill —
Heavy rain on Wednesday caused county cleanup crews to stop work for awhile until the thunderstorms blew through, but crews were expected to continue the cleanup in the wake of the Christmas Day tornado that devastated a portion of this rural community 10 miles north of Picayune.
The thunderstorms that occurred Wednesday morning made people here uneasy, as it brought back memories of the deadly Christmas Day twister spawned by a similar cold front that generated powerful storms within it as warm, moist air collided with a cold front.
County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin, Jr., said the county was having to absorb the cleanup costs this time. There was no funding from either FEMA or MEMA or help in the cleanup after the storm, although the agencies did lend assistance in matters other than direct cleanup of debris.
County officials said that 17 homes were destroyed on Christmas Day when a force three tornado with winds estimated at near 200 mph raked through central Pearl River County from just north of Carriere beginning on White’s Chapel Road and tearing a path to the northeast on past the county jail at Millard. It later touched down east of Poplarville and did damage in Stone County, too. The twister was one mile wide.
One of the hardest hit sections was along Sones Chapel Road.
The antebellum-style home of Ted Williams, high on a hill just north of McNeill, was also destroyed as the twister hit U.S. Highway 11 North and ran alongside the highway for miles.
An estimated 12 people were injured, but no one died, as the powerful twister touched down only minutes after 3 p.m. on Christmas Day.
Many residents were just completing a Christmas dinner when the storm hit and skipped along the ground through the communities.
Lumpkin said county work crews are restricted by state law on just where they can pick up storm debris. He said they cannot go onto private property and clean up. Debris must be piled on the side of the county road right-of-ways. “We can get on private property to remove debris in the right-of-way, but that’s as far as we can go,” said Lumpkin.
“We have just about got all of it. We will be completed most likely in the next few days. The rain has delayed us some,” he added.
The storm debris was being taken to the central landfill at Millard.
Residents hit by the storm were trying to put their lives back together. Lynn Smith and her granddaughter are living with relatives and trying to find a new place to live. She is not sure whether she will rebuild on Joe Smith Road, where she has lived all her life.
“It’s hard to leave. You want to build back. Your whole life is there. But you realize that you might have to move on and leave,” she said.
Her grandfather settled in the area just west of here, and the road was named after him.
On Christmas Day, the Smiths had just finished Christmas dinner and were preparing to pass out gifts when they heard the approaching twister. They just had time to get in the bathroom in the bathtub, covering up one another, and then it hit.
All that was left was the bathroom, and a friend opened the bathroom door to go out, and he saw nothing but sky. All that was left was a piece of the fireplace mantel, and all that was left on it was small Santa and three red Christmas stockings.
“I just don’t know what I will do,” said Smith while she sifted through the remains of her home. “I will just have to take one day at a time and trust in the Lord.”
By the first part of last week, Smith was investigating the possibility of new lodging for her and her granddaughter.
In another part of the community Sue Lott watched as work crews hauled off debris stacked near the road near her destroyed home.
She told WLOX’s Al Showers, “It broke my heart. It has broken my heart, not my will, but it broke my heart to see everything I had as a child and then as a grown up here just destroyed, just utterly destroyed in four seconds. And now it’s just a big pile of rubble. It means nothing to nobody but us.”
She told Showers she was looking for her father’s Bible. He was a preacher and he left it to her, but she had been unable to find it.
She told Showers her 86-year-old mother was “totally traumatized” by the storm, besides being injured.
Some whose homes were destroyed said they had no home insurance.
(Portions of a report by WLOX’s Al Showers were used in this news story with permission from WLOX.)
Homepage
Related Photos
-
This home on Sones Chapel Road was destroyed during the Christmas Day tornado. The county is continuing to pick up and remove debris along the right-of-way on Sones Chapel, and other areas, but residents have to move the debris to the curb. The most homes damaged was along a stretch of Sones Chapel Road stretching north from Joe Smith Road. (Staff photo by David A. Farrell)
Rains slow county clean up after Christmas Day twister
- Local News
-
Incumbent Larry Watkins, left, said kind words and congratulations to newly elected Councilwoman for Precinct One, Tammy Valente, right, as the results of Tuesday’s GOP runoff were posted at city hall.
-
Valente defeats Watkins in precinct 1 race
Tammy Valente won the GOP runoff with incumbent Larry Watkins in precinct one in unofficial results.
-
Deputies arrest meth, cocaine suspects
Deputies arrested a couple on various methamphetamine charges on Tuesday, May 14, following an investigation by Pearl River County Sheriff’s Dept. investigators and the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Deputies also made an arrest for cocaine that same day.
-
Thorman announces candidacy for mayor of Picayune
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Mark Thorman has announced his candidacy and released this statement.)
Hello, my name is Mark Thorman.
I am humbly announcing my candidacy for Mayor of Picayune. -
WAR MEMORIAL
Work on the Veteran’s Memorial Walk in front of the Pearl River County Courthouse is underway. The brick walkway around the historical marker is coordinated by the Poplarville Rotary Club, Poplarville Area Chamber of Commerce and Pearl River Community College. The walkway is to honor local veterans.
-
Man wants pay for snakes seized in Miss. porn case
A man serving 30 years after pleading guilty to enticing a teenager to pose for pornographic pictures with venomous snakes has filed a federal lawsuit seeking compensation for the loss of his reptiles.
-
Valente defeats Watkins in precinct 1 race
- Sports
-
-
Saints ready to practice with Payton again
Even as Sean Payton tried to make the best of his one-season bounty banishment from the NFL by spending time with his children, getting in shape and playing golf, he often compared his punishment to prison time.
He missed his work that much, his players say, adding that his return has infused Saints headquarters with a fresh intensity leading up to Tuesday’s opening of voluntary offseason practices. - Wildcats honored for efforts
- Season ends for Maroon Tide
- Season ends for Maroon Tide
- Tide stays alive
-
Saints ready to practice with Payton again
- Lifestyles
-
-
Arboretum Paths
At the recent Master Naturalist training held at the Crosby Arboretum, Master Gardener Susan Swope discussed how using more natives in our landscapes can save us both time and money. She went on to describe some methods well-suited to lazy gardeners. One was to create planting beds in lawn areas. First, mow the grass as short as possible, then add layers of newspaper or cardboard, add a thick organic layer such as leaves, and there you go— less grass to mow.
- CBAC Did you know? program highlights dangers to senior citizens
- 2013 Partners for Pearl River County By Jodi Marze
- Tami Harris takes state
- Arboretum Paths
-
- State News
-
-
Fire chief says search almost complete in Oklahoma
The search for survivors and the dead is nearly complete in the Oklahoma City suburb that was smashed by a mammoth tornado, the fire chief said Tuesday.
- Indian guest workers sue company in Miss., Texas
- Man wants pay for snakes seized in Miss. porn case
- Tornado churns through Oklahoma City suburbs
- Tchnology can speed emergency response
-
Fire chief says search almost complete in Oklahoma
- International
-
-
Argentine Jorge Bergoglio elected Pope Francis
Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope Wednesday and chose the name Francis, becoming the first pontiff from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium.
Looking stunned, Francis shyly waved to the crowd of tens of thousands of people who gathered in St. Peter’s Square, marveling that the cardinals needed to look to “the end of the earth” to find a bishop of Rome. - Pope Benedict VXI resigning
- Suicide bomber kills guard at US Embassy in Turkey
- EU summit ends without budget deal
- Govt to let Cubans travel freely
-
Argentine Jorge Bergoglio elected Pope Francis
- Opinion
-
-
Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
I haven’t seen the Ladies’ Home Journal in about a million years, except maybe in the dentist’s office when I was trying to avoid a television permanently set on Fox News.
Somebody’s grandchild was selling magazines for a school project, and Ladies’ Home Journal was the only one on the list I recognized. Now it comes to the house.
Let’s just say: It’s not my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal. This month, right behind a feature called “A Country of People Who Never Stop Eating” is one called “Nice Girls Do Get Tattoos.” - Health care market needs oversight
- VA’s appalling failures not recent
- Dolley Madison politically savvy
- Mississippi isn’t immune from national college tuition trends
-
Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
- News Distribution Network
-
Jim Greeson, Indiana's state fire marshal, leads Terre Haute fifth-graders in an earthquake drill in February. The drill was held in connection with the annual Great Central U.S. ShakeOut. Here Greeson demonstrates the "Drop, Cover and Hold On" technique for surviving an earthquake inside a building.
-
The Big One: Preparing for mid-America earthquake
It’s a bleak scenario. A massive earthquake along the New Madrid fault kills or injures 60,000 people in Tennessee. A quarter of a million people are homeless.
- 5 takeaways from the IRS report
- Warning Signs: Technology speeds disaster alerts, response
- Do school bus drivers undergo background checks?
- Texas toddler dies from self-inflicted gunshot wound
-
The Big One: Preparing for mid-America earthquake
- CNHI Special Projects
-
Jim Greeson, Indiana's state fire marshal, leads Terre Haute fifth-graders in an earthquake drill in February. The drill was held in connection with the annual Great Central U.S. ShakeOut. Here Greeson demonstrates the "Drop, Cover and Hold On" technique for surviving an earthquake inside a building.
-
The Big One: Preparing for mid-America earthquake
It’s a bleak scenario. A massive earthquake along the New Madrid fault kills or injures 60,000 people in Tennessee. A quarter of a million people are homeless.
- Technology speeds disaster alerts, response
- Warning Signs: Technology speeds disaster alerts, response
- Tips for tornado readiness
- Against the wind: Tornado veterans balance preparedness, practicality
-
The Big One: Preparing for mid-America earthquake
Jodi Arias: Death Penalty Would Cause More Pain
Looking for Love? Take the Prague Metro
Crews Race to Find Survivors of Okla. Twister
First Person: Baby Falcons on a New York Bridge
Oklahoma: Images of Devastation, Reunion
Reunited Dad, Son: 'We Just Praise God'
Slow Pokes: Acupuncture Helps Sick Turtles
Moore, Okla. City of Reunions, Tears After Storm
Former IRS Chief: Can't Say How List Happened
Gov. Fallin: Okla. Facing Horrific Disaster
Tim Cook Defends Apple's Tax Accounting
AP Photograher: 'It Was a Miracle' They Got Out
Raw: Crews Search for Survivors of Okla. Tornado
Raw: Tearful Reunion After Okla. Tornado
OKC Hospital Describes Treating Tornado Wounded
Obama Pledges Urgent Aid for Tornado Victims
Raw: Massive Funnel Clouds in Oklahoma
