Published: December 20, 2007 06:10 pm         

Six homes destroyed in severe storms

Minor injuries confirmed

LAUREL, Miss. — Apparent straight-line winds, part of a dangerous storm system which moved through Jones County Thursday morning, destroyed three mobile homes and severely damaged at least three houses in the Pleasant Ridge Community about one mile north of Highway 84.

Rescuers pulled two women from a mangled, overturned trailer in order to take them to South Central Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries.

“We had no warning,” said Patsy Hill, owner of the small trailer park who lives nearby. “We (she and her husband) heard a roaring. I went to the door and saw things flying through the air.”

Samantha Sanchez, her son and her brother had just gotten home when the storm hit. “My son and my brother were going inside, and I was just getting out of the car,” she said. “All of a sudden I saw something dark coming at us. I was at the car and something black came at me. The fence was shaking, about to blow, and I got in the trailer. We got in the middle bedroom and I got a mattress and covered us up between the bed and the wall.” Sanchez’ trailer received minor damage compared to the other three.

All three of the destroyed trailers were blown over, with one tumbling down a hill behind where it sat about 50-60 feet. A woman and her mother were in their trailer when the winds hit, blowing the trailer down a hill and overturning several times. The women were pinned in by debris, and were removed by members of the Jones County Sheriff’s Office, several volunteer firefighters and EmServ paramedics. Other volunteers with chainsaws cleared a path down to the trailer from where it once stood to allow rescuers to bring the women up on stretchers and into awaiting ambulances.

Don McKinnon, the coordinator of the Jones County Emergency Management Service, said the women received severe injuries, including cuts, scrapes and possible broken bones. Their names were unavailable. The husband of the younger woman stood at the top of the hill watching rescuers’ efforts.

The occupant of another trailer, a young girl maybe in her early 20s, rummaged through the ruins of what an hour earlier was her home, gathering photo albums, baby clothes and other valuables which could be salvaged. At times, she stopped, overwhelmed, cold, wet and crying.

The occupants of a severely damaged brick home, owned by Dana Holifield, through the woods on Rocking J Road, also walked through their house picking up salvageable items, as rain poured down into their home in several places where the roof was blown away. One car sat under a collapsed, portable carport, while a Model T belonging to Holifield’s grandfather, Leroy Hill, sat under a permanent carport, unharmed.

Police departments responded to the scene from Ellisville and Soso to help with traffic control, along with the Jones County Sheriff’s Office and volunteer firefighters from Pleasant Ridge, Soso, Shady Grove, Powers, M&M and Hebron. McKinnon said about 100 volunteer firefighters, law enforcement personnel and first responders were at the scene.



Steve Sanders writes for the Laurel (Miss.) Leader-Call.