The National Weather Service provided an update on the weekend storms that struck portions of Mississippi, noting the Magnolia State saw 27 tornadoes touch down on Saturday alone.
“The National Weather Service had confirmed 27 tornadoes touched down on December 28 in Mississippi and storm surveys are ongoing,” the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency stated in a press release.
Earlier in the week, NWS had the tornado count in Mississippi at 22 as an outbreak of twisters affected multiple southern states on Saturday and into Saturday night.
According to MEMA, which continues to validate damage assessments and deploy resources, over 300 homes and 14 businesses experienced damage in Adams, Amite, Claiborne, Clarke, Franklin, Harrison, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Leake, Lincoln, Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Perry, Simpson, Scott, Smith, Rankin, Warren, Wayne, Wilkinson, and Yazoo counties.
The swath of severe weather also brought with it thousands of power outages and resulted in two fatalities and 10 injuries. The fatalities came in Adams County, where a Natchez high schooler died, and in Lowndes County, where an elderly woman on oxygen lost power and could not survive the medical emergency.
As of Thursday afternoon, around 1,200 customers remained without power – down from a crux of over 100,000 seeing their lights go off due to the storms. Outages mostly remain in southwestern Mississippi with Wilkinson County having the most.
MEMA’s latest damage report in full is as follows:
- Adams – 20 homes, 1 death
- Amite – 4 homes, 1 business, 1 farm
- Claiborne – 18 homes
- Clarke – 10 homes, 1 business
- Clay – 65 homes, 2 farms
- Franklin – 21 homes, 2 businesses, 1 farm
- Harrison – 6 homes
- Jackson – 10 homes, 1 business
- Jasper – 6 homes, 8 farms
- Jefferson – 4 homes
- Leake – 2 homes
- Lincoln – 25 homes, 3 farms
- Lowndes – 1 home, 1 death
- Oktibbeha – 6 homes, 120 apartments, 5 businesses
- Perry – 1 home, 1 farm
- Simpson – 19 homes, 2 businesses, 5 farms
- Scott – 5 homes, 5 farms
- Smith – 9 homes, 3 farms
- Rankin – 17 homes, 3 apartments, 1 business
- Warren – 1 home
- Wayne – 33 homes, 1 business, 1 farm
- Wilkinson – 2 homes, 3 apartments
- Yazoo – 10 homes, 2 farms
