Thursday Jan. 31,
2013
50 cents
Daily Corinthian Vol. 117, No. 27
Partly sunny Today
Tonight
53
22
0% chance of rain
• Corinth, Mississippi • 16 pages • One section
Storm system leaves mark BY STEVE BEAVERS sbeavers@dailycorinthian.com
BETHEL SPRINGS, Tenn. — A matter of seconds. That’s all it took to keep citizens of a small McNairy County town busy cleaning up debris and downed trees from a storm system that passed through early Wednesday morning. The National Weather Service was in the town surveying damage that could have been the result of small scale tornado between 2-3 a.m. A state of emergency was declared by Gov. Bill Haslam after damaging winds and possible tornadoes hit the state last night and today. The storm damaged an elementary school, businesses and several homes, destroyed storage buildings and mobile homes, and downed numerous trees and power lines in Bethel Springs, a town of 1,000 residents just north of the county seat of Selmer. There were no reports of injuries. “I have never seen anything like it,” said rental property owner Larry King of Selmer, Tenn., as he surveyed damage. Precision Assembly rents the property from King, who also had damage to a rent house on Bethel-Purdy Road off Main Street. A storage building and truck shop with three trucks inside were destroyed on the property. “It’s major damage,” he said, while pointing out a garage door that had been flipped inside out. Less than a half-mile away, Jay Hickman was checking on his father’s business at Vernon’s Custom Woodwork. The makers of kitchen cabinets, counter tops and raised panel doors have been a fixture in the town since the ’80s. “I don’t know what we are going to do,” said Hickman, who also works at the shop, which employs 12-14 people. “We can operate the countertop shop once we get power, but I think the rest is a total loss.” Two storage buildings, containing two classic cars and a boat, were also destroyed on the shop property as tin from the building littered trees and across a field. Hickman’s brother, Brian, who lives across from the shop, thought things had settled down around 2 a.m. “I was watching the weather and they said everything was all clear,” he said. “Ten minutes later it hit … it was all over in about 30 seconds.” Brian Hickman said he rushed to wake up his wife and daughter during the storm. “I grabbed them and we hit the shower,” he said, while taking photos of damage.
Staff photos by Steve Beavers
Brian Bargas removes trees from a house on Bethel-Purdy Road in Bethel Springs. Hickman said the suction was so great that it caused his fireplace to begin whistling. “It sounded like a train whistle,” he said. Most of the damage on the small town looked to be on Buena Vista, Masseyville and Bethel-Purdy roads along with Main Street. The storm woke Betel Springs resident Terry Hanson and his wife. “We were dead asleep,” said Hanson, the owner of a used tire shop on Main Street. “It was powerful, but it apparently jumped over us and hit Buena Vista … it didn’t touch any of our property.” Bethel Springs Elementary School suffered roof damage and had some broken gas lines, according to principal Terry Moore. Some central units on top of the school were also harmed, and a canopy was ripped from the cafeteria. “There is significant water damage to three rooms,” he said. “It was typical storm damage.” The principal said he heard “it got rough around Bethel” prior to arriving at the school at 2:20 a.m. Clocks in classrooms showed power to the school went out at 1:30 a.m. “After I passed the state garage, I knew we had to have something bad,” he said. “It could have been worse … we
A vacant mobile home was destroyed on Cude Street in Bethel Springs when an early-morning storm hit the town. will take it day-by-day and get back to school quick as possible.” The announcement of the closing of McNairy County Schools was made around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday by district officials. McNairy County Mayor Ronnie Brooks and emergency management coordinator
Rudy Moore were in Bethel Springs looking over damage just before 10 a.m. “There is a lot of timber down and damage to some structures and homes,” said Brooks. “Right now we are trying to assess damage.” “Bethel has quiet a bit,” added Moore about damage. “No one was hurt that we know of
and that’s the main thing.” Other parts of the county also reported damage, according to sheriff Guy Buck. “We know Rose Creek was affected,” he said. There were also reports of damage on Sandy Flat Road. A command post was set up Please see STORM | 2
Alcorn County has Arena prepares for busy schedule isolated outages, property damage BY STEVE BEAVERS
sbeavers@dailycorinthian.com
BY JEBB JOHNSTON jjohnston@dailycorinthian.com
Alcorn County escaped Tuesday night’s storm system with some scattered power outages and isolated property damage. Alcorn County Electric Power Association Engineer Jason Grisham said the biggest power outage happened in Corinth about 11:45 p.m. when winds kicked up in advance of the approaching line
of thunderstorms. A limb took out a three-phase line on Proper Street, knocking out power to 600 customers for about an hour on Proper Street, Pinecrest and Garden Lane. “It caught the right limb in the wrong place,” said Grisham. Other outages were isolated and affected small numbers of customers. Please see OUTAGES | 3
February is going to be another busy month at the Crossroads Arena. The facility, coming off the two highly successful events of the Alcorn County Tournament and Alcorn Farm & Machinery-Home & Outdoor Show in January, is in the middle of an active start to 2013. “The first three months are our busiest of the year,” said Cindy Davis with the Crossroads Arena. The 2nd Annual Kiwanis Father/Daughter Valentine Ball gets things kicked off on Feb. 9. Billed as a special evening for dads, grandfathers and father figures, the ball is set for 6-8:30 p.m.
Index Stocks........8 Classified......14 Comics........ 9 State........ 5
Weather...... 10 Obituaries........ 6 Opinion........4 Sports...... 12
Magnolia Regional Health Center's 2013 Women's Health Conference is slated for Feb. 15. “The conference is a wonderful event with a lot of good information,” said Davis. To me, it's the best event of the year.” Davis said the conference draws close to 800 each year. The conference will be held from 8 a.m. until noon. Individuals interested in attending should call MRHC at 662-293-1000. Seating is limited to the event. Organizers of the 2013 Alcorn County Wildlife Tasting Supper have set Feb. 19 for the annual event. Doors open at 4:45 p.m with a door fee being one wildlife dish per person or
$10 for adults and $5 for children ages five through 12. “Patrick (Poindexter) and Sandy (Mitchell) do a great job of coordinating the event,” said Davis. There will be gun raffles and a utility trailer raffle. Raffle tickets can be bought at the door. Dish contest registration begins at 5 p.m. with the supper slated for 6. The Junior Auxiliary Ball closes out the month with its annual spectacle on Feb. 23. Back-to-back sporting events such as the Motocross and Monster Truck Show get March off to a strong start. The Motocross is set for march 1-2 while the monster trucks invade the Crossroads Arena on March 8-9.
On this day in history 150 years ago Two Confederate steam rams attack the Union blockade at Charleston, S.C. One U.S. ship is sunk and another is heavily damaged, but the strong blockade is not broken and Charleston Harbor remains closed to shipping.