Storms bring down trees across Winston County, blocking roads, crashing onto homes
LOUISVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Wednesday night’s storms caused extensive damage throughout Winston County, with first responders working through the night to cut a path through all the trees that were blocking roads or on top of houses.
“We could see there was a lot of damage,” says Louisville resident Renee Jones. “And I never dreamed about us coming home and finding this.”
What Renee and her husband Glen found at around 9 p.m. was a massive oak tree that came crashing down onto their home on Calhoun Road during Wednesday’s storms.
“We’d probably be minus a car and a truck, at least a car, maybe a truck too if we hadn’t gone to the (storm) shelter,” Glen says.
The Joneses say the oak tree was nearly 100 years old, stood over 120 feet tall and was so wide, that two people couldn’t reach around it.
“The tree is huge,” says Winston County Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Kohrs. “My chainsaw blade isn’t going anywhere near it. It’s a good four feet across.”
Deputy Kohrs says the Nanih Waiya fire chief sent him out to help get the tree off the Jones’s home. He says he and other first responders spent much of the night removing fallen trees.
“We had to work our way through, cutting across both Eillison Ridge, 490, 397,” Deputy Kohrs says. “Eillison Ridge was completely closed off. It took two tractors and about eight chainsaws (to clear).”
Deputy Kohrs says that the East Winston Fire Department, Nanih Waiya Fire Department and volunteers from De Kalb all assisted with the damage control.
“Everybody pulled together,” he says. “It’s been great. The community has really pulled together to help each other out during the storm.”
And while the Joneses say it was a blessing none of their family members were injured, Renee says it will take time for what happened to their home to completely sink in.
“I know it’ll hit a little more tomorrow,” she says.
As of Thursday morning, Winston County Emergency Management says no injuries have been reported.
