By Billy Davis

An insurance agent, pen and paper in hand, toured the grounds of the Panola County Sheriff’s Department Thursday morning to inspect the damage caused by a fearsome lightning strike.

Travelers agent Richard Harris was shown where lightning likely entered the dispatch building through a 50-foot tower. Inside the building, he saw sensitive electrical equipment that was “fried” when electricity spread through the building.

The lightning hit Sunday at 12:03 a.m., rendering the dispatch center inoperable. Damage to the building and its equipment is estimated at $500,000.

The first of several repairs inside the building were expected to begin Thursday, with plans to be operating by next week.

Harris was led on the tour by Panola EMA director Daniel Cole, and by sheriff’s employees Robbie Haley and Joe Sanders.

“We want to make sure your emergency services are up and running as soon as possible,” Harris assured the county employees.

Because of the lightning strike, a sheriff’s dispatcher is handling 911 calls at the Batesville Police Department.

Other sheriff’s dispatchers are working from a mobile communications trailer at the jail, where they are handling radio traffic and regular calls to the sheriff’s department.

“They said it shook the jail,” Cole told a reporter about the lightning strike that fell, not on the jail, but at the nearby dispatch building.

Two dispatchers and a sheriff’s deputy were inside the building at the time, Cole has said. Inside the building, the strike was likened to a bomb blast.

A thunderstorm that was considered weak, but included frequent lightning strikes, was moving through the area at the time, Cole said.   

After the tour, Cole said Travelers has committed to pay for some losses quickly in order to ensure the dispatch center is operational quickly.