There are people in Saltillo finding family pictures in their yards from Rolling Fork.
- Thread starter DesotoCountyDawg
- Start date
When the tornado hit Soso on Easter Sunday in 2020, there were people in Alabama finding photos of Soso families. Soso isn’t anywhere close to the Alabama state line. It’s crazy how far these storms can carry things.
I live in Saltillo and found a piece of roof shingle in my yard. I wondered if it blew in as I couldn’t see a neighbor with a missing piece.
That’s not unusual at all. There was debris in this tornado as high as 30,000 feet. A couple of years ago a tornado just missed my property in Walthall county by about 1/2 mile. It was an F4 on the scale. I stood on the front porch of my home with my son-in-law and we watched (and heard and felt) the funnel as it passed just north of my house. The tornado hit an old country store about 4 miles north of us and flattened the old store building. The tornado traveled through Collins, MS and on into Alabama. Old cancelled checks from that old country store were found in Alabama over 250 miles away. When I lived in Waco, Texas (I think it was 1997) there was a huge F5 monster that hit Jarrell, Texas between Waco and Austin one afternoon. A rancher in Jarrell got a call from a guy in Lampasas, Texas (I guess 40-50 miles away) who called to tell him that he had found 3 cows bearing his brand on his place the next morning. The cows didn’t have a mark on them and were perfectly fine. Another fellow in Lampasas found a washing machine belonging to another person in Jarrell sitting in his driveway the next morning. It still had a delivery receipt taped to the washing machine from Lowe’s which is how he found the owner. The washing machine had a small dent in the back, otherwise it was perfectly fine. Tornadoes do some very strange things. I’ve seen pictures of pine needles driven through 3/4” boards as a result of tornadoes. Very strange things, indeed.
The power of nature is humbling. After the Louisville tornado we found a receipt from the daycare where the woman died protecting the children in my yard in Starkville. When one hit just outside Greenwood back when I was in highschool they found items up in Tupelo. Once you get relatively light items lofted up that high into the air in intense cyclic tornadic supercells they can go a long way. There was an unconfirmed rumor of a solid wood door landing on the MSU campus from the Louisville tornado. I have my doubts on that one but certainly not going to say it was impossible.
Reminds me of when Bibles of the First Baptist Church of Water Valley fell onto the streets of New Albany. Really bad F-4 back in the day. I believe some children watched their parents in a pickup get hoisted over 200 feet in the air and then crashed to their deaths right in front of them as the tornado went right through downtown Water Valley. The northern third of Mississippi has long seen the worst tornadoes in MS history.
Yesterday several neighbors hit by this tornado had gathered at one of the worst hit houses and the subject of garbage cans came up. These are the big county issued cans and nobody has seen one. We’ve all been out on atvs through pastures and field’s looking for stuff and not a single one of us has found a garbage can in any of the debris. It’s irrelevant but it just seemed odd to us.
In 1989 one hit my grandfathers house. He was rolled up in carpet in hall (runner carpet from center isle of his church). He survived with only minor cuts to his hands and forehead.
During cleanup, we were astonished with what was left and what was totaled.
His car (87 or so crown Vic ). barely any scratches on it
His truck (66 Chevy truck) got barrel rolled several times and was in his garden spot. They were parked side by side in driveway.
Had a huge cedar tree in front yard that got bark peeled away a turned practically inside out. Big bridge timber nail driven into heart of that tree probably 3 inches.
Neighbors made molasses and had the big heavy cast iron sugarcane press that was found in pasture a couple hundred feet from where it was, the aluminum “mash” pans were still stacked on the slab by the cooking vat.
During cleanup, we were astonished with what was left and what was totaled.
His car (87 or so crown Vic ). barely any scratches on it
His truck (66 Chevy truck) got barrel rolled several times and was in his garden spot. They were parked side by side in driveway.
Had a huge cedar tree in front yard that got bark peeled away a turned practically inside out. Big bridge timber nail driven into heart of that tree probably 3 inches.
Neighbors made molasses and had the big heavy cast iron sugarcane press that was found in pasture a couple hundred feet from where it was, the aluminum “mash” pans were still stacked on the slab by the cooking vat.
My tractor that’s near Blackhawk. The camphouse 100’ feet away is destroyed.
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My home took a direct hit from a tornado in 2020. It wasn't a particularly large one, but it was large to me. I have a huge back yard completely enclosed with a 6-foot cedar privacy fence. That tornado completely removed my fence. There was no evidence that it was ever there, except for a few fenceposts that snapped off and a couple that got blown through my windows. I wonder where all that wood/fencing ended up.
in the 1960;s as a child in Indiana i lived through the infamous Palm Sunday outbreak. There was a ball of barb wire fencing that was rolled up like a bale of hay 6 storys high and 50 feet wide. it had rolled every fence line for about 20 miles.
My story's not as dramatic as y'all's but I happened to see some things with my own eyes as I watched thru plexi glass in a ground floor office on Winchester near Hickory Hill in Memphis back in the early 90's. First the plexi glass started to act like it was gonna buckle but thankfully didn't. Then we saw a big wooden sign that was next door at an animal feed store fly by like a magic carpet right above telephone poles height wise whichwas found about a 1/4 mile down the road in a grocery parking lot after all was over. Then we saw the 2X4's that once mounted said sign go right thru 2 of the ladies' side car windows who were in the office with us. Both of their cars were flooded with rain water about 3 inches deep on in the floorboards even though the heavy rain only remained for only about 3 minutes after the wooden projectiles shattered both driver side windows. Unfortunately a couple of students died in a school near by that I only remember named as "Houston" which is kinda near German Town if memory serves. We assumed that what we caught were the straight line winds but the High School caught the direct hit.
My high school go hit, band hall roof taken off, walls imploded, windows blown out but all of the band sheet music was still neatly stacked up on the shelves just like before the storm.
My mom is from Wakarusa, IN and watched from the hay loft of their barn as the tornado come through. She said the poles of their very large barn were moving up and down in the ground.
This storm was the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 1994. I know because I was a senior at Houston High School (in Germantown). I lived about 2.5 miles from the high school. The tornado first touched down just 2 blocks from my house and tore up about 15 houses pretty bad. We lost shingles and had water damage but nothing else. The storm then jumped and touched down just about a 1/2 mile west of the school and destroyed most of that neighborhood and glanced off the high school, basically destroying about 4 or 5 classrooms on the western most edge of the HS. Fortunately it was a Sunday, so we weren't in school. There were 3 people that died in a house just west of the school though.
We were out of school for a week or so. Then, we actually went to school for 1/2 days at our rival Germantown HS for the last 3 weeks before Christmas break. They went to school in the morning and we went in the afternoon.
https://www.memphisweather.blog/2009/11/remembering-germantown-tornado-15-years.html
https://germantowntnhistory.org/maj...ed the,least 22 residences totally demolished.
The April 2011 storm that trucked Tuscaloosa dead centered a Milo’s Hamburger restaurant. Milo’s cups and wrappers ended up in North Carolina, where they had to google what the heck a Milo’s is. (~300 miles, if memory serves me)
So maybe my memory's not serving me exactly? What I witnessed could not have been on a Sunday since I was at work. Do you not remember the "Houston" School losing 2 students during class hours? Thanks for helping me remember.
To bring some humor into the discussion, this 3 minute clip always makes me laugh but you gotta let it play out especially if you are a fan of Gunsmoke and still like the reruns like I do.
That storm was on a Sunday, the Sunday after Thanksgiving to be exact. I know for a fact because it was my senior year. The school was hit, but was obviously was empty. Three people died in a house nearby, but two were adults and one was a child around 11 or 12 (the child was in visiting for the holiday if I remember correctly). We did not have any students die from that storm. From what I know, that is the only time a tornado hit my high school.
Thanks man as I'm sure your memory is better considering you were enrolled in that Houston High School and I was only an employee there at Winchester and Hickory Hill.
This storm was the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 1994. I know because I was a senior at Houston High School (in Germantown). I lived about 2.5 miles from the high school. The tornado first touched down just 2 blocks from my house and tore up about 15 houses pretty bad. We lost shingles and had water damage but nothing else. The storm then jumped and touched down just about a 1/2 mile west of the school and destroyed most of that neighborhood and glanced off the high school, basically destroying about 4 or 5 classrooms on the western most edge of the HS. Fortunately it was a Sunday, so we weren't in school. There were 3 people that died in a house just west of the school though.
You & I may have bumped into each other in the hallways…class of 96, here.
When Scott's house was blown apart in the 2011 Smithville F5 his stuff was pretty much scattered around his huge lot. People were combing through his yard picking up his things and trying to walk away right in front of him. After returning the next morning, He found His oven had been unbolted and pulled out on the floor when he was let back in the neighborhood at dawn. The MHP made everyone leave late the night before, and come back the next day. The National Guard had not showed up yet to prevent looting. It would have been hard for me to not stand outside with a gun till the NG got there. Some people are scum.
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