By Billy Davis

An F2 tornado touched down in the Pope community Saturday night according to a survey of storm damage, said Daniel Cole, Panola County Emergency Management. No one was injured.

“It happened within seconds  —  literally in seconds,” said Chapel Hill Road resident Jim Prevallet. “We never heard a sound.”

Chapel Hill is located east of Pope near Enid Lake.

In Jim and Bobbie Prevellet’s two-story brick home, the husband and wife ran under the staircase for shelter. There was no rumbling train-sound usually heard when a twister touches down, but the husband recalled feeling the air pressure change inside the house, even with the windows closed. 

“You could feel the suction,” he recalled. “It was like the house went into a vacuum.”
 
In the pounding rain outside, the tornado overturned a farm truck, slamming it against a tree in the backyard.  In the same yard, winds estimated at 113 miles per hour flipped over a 30-foot camper trailer and demolished a workshop. A tool shed nearby fell collapsed when the winds ripped off the roof.
In the family’s rolling pasture behind the home, the tornado stayed on the ground for about 300 yards, knocking down cedars and hardwoods, Prevallet said.

Somehow the family’s horses and cattle were spared.

A representative of the National Weather Service surveyed the damage Sunday and designated the tornado an F2, which is based on the damage caused by the twister, said Cole.

The tornado also damaged the Pickett family’s home and shop on Chapel Hill Road according to Cole. No other structural damage has been reported, Cole said.

The Saturday night storm was traveling southeast and the tornado spun off and traveled northeast. It was on the ground for approximately two minutes according to the EMA director.