Smithville remembers tragic tornado outbreak anniversary with ceremony

SMITHVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Every day for seven years, the people whose names are on this memorial are remembered by their family and close friends.

Saturday the town of Smithville plans to celebrate those lives, lost in the tornado on April 27, 2011.

Sixteen people died that day. The storm is ranked as one of the most damaging by the National Weather Service. It was an EF-5, with winds greater than 200 miles per hour.

Town Clerk Kim Johnson says the service will mark the time of the storm.

“Tomorrow we are having a remembrance service. It will start at 3:00 and end at 3:47. We will have moment of silence but we are going to have several local preachers come and say a few words and we are going to recognize some of the family members that were lost,” says Johnson.

The Smithville tornado was part of what came to be known as a super outbreak of tornadoes across Mississippi and Alabama.