Dozens of crews help clean up Columbus after storm
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Dozens of crews have been out in Columbus, cleaning up after that strong storm system swept through.
High winds brought down power lines and toppled trees in many areas including the MUW campus.
What everyone thought was just a late evening something storm was much more serious.
The calls were just continuously coming into 911 so we knew something drastic had happened in Columbus.
And it left behind a lot of damage.
People were saying they had trees in their homes or they had roof damage or power outages.
Lowndes County EMA director Cindy Lawrence says some of those calls were people asking for immediate help.
There were some people trapped in a home last night who were rescued by the police department. No one was harmed. We have not received any injuries in Lowndes County.
Firefighters were dispatched to more than a dozen locations. Nine of those calls were house fires.
We had one house fire that had a major loss. A lot of the other fires were minor.
Jaquay Sherrod from Columbus Fire and Rescue said sunrise revealed the widespread damage.
With the daylight, we can kind of see more. We still have a lot of trees down. We have a lot of power lines down and debris.
As the power crew works to get the lights back on, emergency officials urge you to steer clear.
As of right now, we’re asking people to avoid the area. We have crews out working. We did have an incident earlier where someone got out trying to see something and had a little incident. Safety first.
EMA Director Cindy Lawrence said her office received a lot of calls from people wanting to know why the tornado sirens were not activated.
She says their policy is to only activate the sirens when there is a tornado warning in the area. Last night’s storm has been classified as a straight-line wind event.
