Panola spared again after second weekend of storms

By John Howell Sr.

Panola County was again mostly spared as violent weather passed through Mississippi for the second consecutive weekend.

By Monday afternoon, five people had been confirmed to have died in the state — one at Abbeville in Lafayette County, two in Alcorn County and two at Ashland in Benton County — after storm systems training from southwest to northeast created tornadoes and inundating rains over the northern part of the state, in Arkansas and Tennessee.

The most recent storms came eight days after 11 people died in Mississippi when a similar storm system traversed the north central part of the state, producing a large tornado that cut a swath almost 200 miles long.

Panola County was one of five that was visited Monday by Mississippi Emergency Management (MEMA) crews assessing damage. Damage assessments were also under way in Benton, Lafayette, Tippah and Union counties.

Damage in Panola County was created by torrential rains that fell Saturday and Sunday and by high winds that occasionally accompanied the rains.

Extensive local flooding was reported throughout the county including downtown Batesville where water turned Thomas Street into a watercourse that eventually rose high enough to enter the front door at Smith Cleaners.

Bethany Baptist Church, in the Eureka community, reported wind damage.

Panola County Emergency Management director Daniel Cole told county supervisors Monday that 20 to 24 roads had been damaged, five homes received minor damage and one business had been damaged by water.

Sardis Reservoir received 7.85 inches of rain during the weekend, said Kathy Pittman of the U. S. Corps of Engineers Sardis Lake Field Office. The lake level rose 2.7 feet “just over the weekend,” she added, bringing the upper lake level to 261.20 feet above mean sea level on Monday. The lake overflows its emergency spillway at 281.4 feet.

Downstream from Sardis Dam, water from the Tallahatchie River overflowed its banks along the McIvor Floodway, pushing water against the levee and creating the appearance of a lake at the Tallahatchie River bridge on Highway 6/278 West.

Residents of low-lying areas west of the Tallahatchie River near Curtis were plagued with local flooding. Linda Fox, 938 Seven Road, Batesville, said that the water had risen to the level of the top step at her home on Sunday.

She blamed the flooding on roadside drainage ditches that have been allowed to accumulate limbs and other debris which blocks drainage, she said.

Enid Reservoir recorded far less rainfall over the weekend. Spokesman Jordan Dungan said 2.03 inches fell there from May 1 through May 3. The lake level rose from 249.58 feet to 250.89, she said.