Starkville leaders respond to allege incident during Saturday’s storms

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – While the storm moved closer to Starkville and the MSU campus, students and many visitors from out of town were “on the town.”

Some social media posts took a local restaurant to task for evacuating, allegedly leaving some guests without a place to seek shelter.

Starkville Police Chief Frank Nichols told WCBI he is aware of the reported incident and he says his office is interviewing witnesses and investigating the report.

For Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill, this is a learning moment.

“This is an opportunity for us to join with the emergency center and look and see where we can identify places in areas all over town that have safe spaces that we can then address. I’m not at sure what circumstances were. That’s still under investigation, but from my perspective, we want to have a take away that’s a positive from this. And that to me, is how we go about it, and that’s making sure our residents have safe spaces to go and let them know about that.”

Although there was some flash flooding, no serious damage has been reported within the city limits.