A storm front moving into Pearl River County Friday morning kept emergency personnel busy with wrecks, downed trees and power outages.

Emergency Management Director Bobby Strahan said a storm front moving into the county early this morning caused the county to be on watch for tornadoes in the northeastern part of the county.

As of 9 a.m., the tornado watches were isolated to that area of the county, but a front was expected to come through the county about mid morning, Strahan said.

“Right now you can say we dodged the bullet, more or less,” Strahan said.

Poplarville was not immune to some problems those high winds brought, especially when Hurricane Katrina left so many trees weakened or dead. Poplarville Police Chief Charlie Fazende said that falling limbs on power lines in the city have caused power outages.

“We’re without power as we speak,” Fazende said about the police department early Friday.

Fazende reported then that his department had no reports of major damage since most of the reported falling limbs were not large. He said all the dead and dying trees in the county from Katrina are being pushed around by the small storm.

Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Chris Lott said the department has been responding to numerous wrecks and downed trees in the road due to the storm front. Lott said the downed trees are due to the high winds on weak trees and the wrecks are due to the limited visibility and wet roads.

“Trees in the road and wrecks have been the main calls,” Lott said.

The situation had all of the Sheriff’s department staff out on calls, including investigators, Lott said.

Strahan said there were no reports of major damage, and even though the northeastern end of the county was under a tornado watch, there were no reported sightings of a tornado.