Hattiesburg MS Severly damaged by tornado (1 Viewer)

[staphory]

The damage I'm aware of is at Oak Grove High, Hattiesburg High, USM campus, a business and possibly a church in Petal.

Tornado hits Mississippi; storms move east - CNN.com

 

[bclemms]

This storm looked really nasty on radar from I-55 east. It put down multiple tornadoes from south of Columbia, Ms all the way into Alabama. By the looks on radar it may have been one or two long tracked tornadoes instead of the currently reported dozen or so from the storm. Luckily there haven't been any deaths reported yet and most of the injuries have been minor. Other than Hattiesburg, the supercell producing the tornado stayed in pretty rural areas.

Also, they are still not out of the woods. The frontal boundary is stalling out right over SE MS and there is a severe thunderstorm headed towards Hattiesburg that is isolated and still in an environment very favorable for tornadoes.

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[guidomerkinsrules]

my alma mater - i read that on wwl and the first thought that popped to my head was "i bet mardi gras saved some lives' just have to imagine there are much fewer people on campus right now

 

[billinms]

Prayers out to those affected. We're texting friends in H'burg now.

 

[GeauxSainz]

Prayers sent.








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[Redfish]

Darn thing passed one mile north of my house, power went off then came right back on. We never even got any wind on south side.

 

[TXSAINTFAN]

Thoughts and prayers out to everyone affected.

 

[bclemms]

Latest injury update, 66 injured without a single fatality. It is very rare to see that many injuries without any deaths, very fortunate.

 

[GrayMatter78]

Acquaintance of my brother ran an errand and came back to half his house missing. Fortunate that he was away when it touched down.

 

[OldSaintFan]

My Daughter and Grand Daughter/Husband were hit by it. All OK though.

 

[bclemms]

Total injuries up to 77 with several in critical.

 

[slaym]

Mardi Gras saved a lot of people that would have normally been on USM's campus.

 

[Saintsfan22]

Very Preliminary report says tornado was at least an EF3

NWS Jackson MS &#8207;<s>@</s>NWSJacksonMS Very prelim survey info: Tornado in the Hattiesburg area at least EF-3. Max winds 140mph in Hattiesburg, 145mph in W HBG/Oak Grove area.

This looks about right to me from what I was seeing damage wise with outer walls of buildings taken out while, leaving interior walls intact and major roof damage. wouldn't expect to see the rating change much more very strong tornado. Praying for all of those effected, very fortunate for no one to be killed by this storm.

 

[bclemms]

Very Preliminary report says tornado was at least an EF3



This looks about right to me from what I was seeing damage wise with outer walls of buildings taken out while, leaving interior walls intact and major roof damage. wouldn't expect to see the rating change much more very strong tornado. Praying for all of those effected, very fortunate for no one to be killed by this storm.

Yep, looked exactly like EF-3 damage in Hattiesburg. NWS Jackson is now thinking this was a very long tracked tornado. I've seen preliminary reports go up in rating but never down. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of EF4 damage being found west of Hattiesburg where the radar signatures were strongest.

It is no surprise that there was a strong, long track tornado with effective deep layer sheer at 60-70 knots, 0-1 SRH of 400 and ML cape values 1000-1500, backed winds at the surface at storm motions at 50+ mph. The atmosphere was primed last night for a big tornado. If anything, I'm very shocked we didn't see more storms produce yesterday afternoon since there were so many isolated rotating supercells.

 

[Zaphod]

Here's a link with more information from the NWS.

A few pictures taken from another board:

The Olgletree House. It is one of 5 original buildings on campus and was originally built as the home for the school president.

Here are a couple of pictures of what's left of one of the music buildings. From what I understand, the Jazz Lab is completely gone, Mannoni Performing Arts Center is damaged, and Marsh Hall will have to be demolished. Elam Arms also took damage, but was already scheduled for demolition.

This is Elam Arms.

A shot of the tornado in action from a few miles down HW 98 West.