Storm damage to the campus of Southwest Mississippi Community College was evident in the light of day Thursday morning after powerful winds from what college officials feared could have been a tornado swept through Wednesday night.
The college’s library was covered in fallen trees and was obviously the most heavily damaged building, with the impact of numerous pines leaving its roof sagging, allowing rainwater to pour inside.
“I think a tornado came through here. It had to,” College President Dr. Steve Bishop said.
He estimated that at least 40 trees had fallen on campus. “We don’t even know yet.”
Southwest was just one of the areas hard hit by the storm in Pike County and the surrounding area.
Civil Defense Director Tina Reed said damage was reported to at least 13 homes, including seven with minor damage, six with major damage. Two of the homes were mobile homes, she said.
The storm left roads impassible and knocked out power to thousands.
Damage also was reported in Amite, Lincoln, Walthall and Smith counties, MEMA officials said.
Magnolia Electric Power officials said at noon Thursday that it had 12,311 meters in the dark, slightly down from a peak of 16,300.
“The linemen will be assessing damage to the system as they work on the outages,” the electric cooperative said in a statement. “At this time, we are aware of severe damage to our system from the line of storms and possibly tornadoes.”
The cooperative said the hardest-hit local areas appear to include Smithdale, Pisgah, Summit, Bogue Chitto, Arlington and Jayess.
As of 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning, there were 40,300 reported power outages across the state, down from a high of over 48,000 during the storm’s peak,” MEMA officials said.
Bishop said he was thankful that the storm came through during spring break, when about 60 students were on campus for baseball, basketball and softball games.
“It could’ve been worse but it’s still pretty bad,” he said. “There’s a lot to be thankful for.”
He predicted much of the campus would be without power for the better part of the week.
In addition to the library, trees fell on the new and old women’s dorms, the allied health building, the old men’s dorm, fencing around the football field and dugouts at the baseball and softball fields.
The adjacent campus of North Pike High School also received some damage to a dugout.
“This is about the worst this campus has been hit in 34 years,” said Bishop, who went to work at SMCC in 1992. “It’s going to look different here in a couple of days. It’s going to be alright.”
