A Lawrence County teenager was pinned beneath a tree for hours until he could be rescued in the aftermath of a powerful storm that hit overnight, downing trees and powerlines and hitting the Jayess area especially hard.
A sheriff’s official said the tree fell on the teen’s home on Robert Tynes Road around 3:30 a.m. and it took until about 9 a.m. for rescuers to free him.
The boy was taken to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center. His condition wasn’t immediately known.
The storm blew the roof and some bricks off Calvary Pentecostal Church on Holmesville Road and caused significant property damage just east of there on Robert Tynes Road, including roofs blown off houses, allowing the storm to pour rain inside.
Sheriff’s officials had about 40 calls for trees and power lines down, making travel in the area a mess until roads could be cleared, and the county’s fire service issued travel advisories for the southern part of the county.
Crews were still busy clearing roads on Tuesday morning, and civil defense officials were continuing to assess damage and make sure nothing was missed in the cleanup, sheriff’s officials said.
Pike County Civil Defense Director Tina Reed said the storm downed some trees in the area. She was not immediately sure of how many but said firefighters and road crews were making good progress clearing roads Monday morning. Reed said she had received no reports of property damage.
Magnolia Electric Power reported about 3,200 meters without power early Monday afternoon as linemen worked to repair the grid, with most of those outages in Lincoln and Lawrence counties.
Entergy’s more urban power grid was holding stronger, with outages between Liberty and Gloster affecting nearly a little less than 200 customers early Monday afternoon.
