Jones County Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Paul Sheffield said early Tuesday morning that actual damage assessment in the wake of Monday night’s tornadoes and storms would begin Tuesday morning. He did say that the storm damage path in Laurel-Jones County began at Hillcrest and Moose Road and continued on a northeasterly path to Clark County with sporadic damage along the way.
Damage in Laurel could be found at Piggly Wiggly on 16th Avenue and a couple of blocks behind there on 15th Avenue and 14th Avenue. McAllister’s received damage and you can follow the tree-downed path through the historic district on to the old campus of the Laurel Magnet School on MLK Blvd where the roof of the school was blown off and the debris thrown into the large Mississippi Power Substation. The neighborhood around the school on Joe Wheeler and 14th Street received heavy damage as well.
“It was scary,” exclaimed Lorna Stubbs who lives on the corner of 14th Street and Joe Wheeler with her husband Bobby. “We watched the wind twirling in the and then suddenly there was a loud popping sound.” That popping sound may have been coming from the power substation near the school. She added that the trees in her yard fell on top of both their vehicles.
At Gardner Park and the Laurel School District offices, which are located in the old Gardner High School, there were more than eight trees uprooted in the Park. One can definitely notice a change in the landscape around the ole GHS building.
The path of damage and destruction continued on across I-59 to Highway 11. One of the first calls for help to the Jones County Volunteer Fire Service went out to Sandersville for a family trapped in their home at Ross Johnson Road which is located at I-59 and Highway 11 south of Sandersville. The next call was for a family trapped in their home on Carl Jones Road which is located off Magnolia Road. Volunteer Fire and Rescue units from Sandersville and Powers began to head toward both locations. At both locations there were no injuries. Shortly afterwards calls began to come from around Eastview Drive. Then reports of damage came in from East Main Street in Sandersville just before the City Limits, and then Ned Dillard Road, Florence Church Road, Arlee Williams Road, and McFarland Road on and around the Bogue Homa Choctaw Indian Reservation. Fire and Rescue units from Rustin, Glade, Sharon, Shady Grove and Calhoun began to head toward Sandersville where Incident Command was established at the Sandersville Volunteer Fire Station. Volunteers from all these departments as well as the citizens of Jones County worked throughout the night clearing trees from roads and checking on residents.