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The tornado fatality that occurred in Washington County on Friday, October 9th was the first death from a tornado in Mississippi in 4 years or since 2005.

Sixty year-old Sarah Smith was killed when a EF-1 tornado with winds near 110 mph flipped her mobile home on its roof.

Smith died after suffering severe head trauma.

According to the National Climatic Data Center, the last tornado fatality during the month of October in Mississippi -was over 40 years ago in 1967. (Harrison County 1967)

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This was also the first tornado death since May of this year across the country.

A total 22 tornado fatalities have occurred in the United States in 8 states, this year.

(Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky)

This is well below the 126 fatalities that occurred across the country in 2008 and the 3 year average of 91 tornado fatalities.

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Swimmer possibly attacked by alligator

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) – According to witnesses, an alligator attacked a swimmer in the Pearl River Sunday afternoon.

Fishermen at the scene said a man was swimming in the river near Laurel Street in the Belhaven Area of Jackson.

Police said the 24-year-old was with a group of friends from Clinton.

Witnesses said he unknowingly swam toward an alligator then went under the water.

The search began around three o’clock.

Rescue crews from the Jackson and Pearl Fire Departments called off the search at night fall.

Friends say they looked for the Hinds Community College student when they discovered him missing.

“By the time we got to where we had last seen him some fishermen told us that they saw him go under water and he never came back up,” said friend Brandon Johnson.

“We have fishermen who where on the bank who told us that they have seen gators in this little stretch of the river sometime this afternoon; however, it’s just too early to speculate what may have happened to the missing individual,” said Jackson Police Dept. Lt. Jeffery Scott.

Police have not released the man’s name and said the search will resume Monday morning.

According to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks web site, Mississippi has never documented an alligator attack.

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Yazoo lightning strike victim dies

An 18-year-old Job Corps cadet struck by lightning Saturday near Yazoo City has died.

Yazoo County Coroner Ricky Shivers said Andrew Williams never regained conscious and died Monday of injuries from the lightning strike.

Shivers said Williams has an address in Crystal Springs, but was a resident of Florida.

Shivers said Williams and two other youths were at the edge of a cornfield about eight miles southwest of Yazoo City at about 2:20 p.m. when lightning struck.

Williams was in water and the other two youths were at the edge of the muddy field, Shivers said.

After Williams was struck by lightning, one of the other youths ran about a quarter-mile when she came upon her father who was looking for the trio. The father notified his wife and they went the scene. They found Williams without a pulse and unresponsive.

The woman began CPR and continued until paramedics arrived. Williams was brought to Yazoo City and then airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

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Teens Struck By Lightning

Yazoo County Sheriff’s Deputies say the teens were in a field on Eagle Bend Road, near Highway 3.

By Nichole Cyprian

Story Created: May 16, 2009 at 5:18 PM CDT

Story Updated: May 17, 2009 at 5:33 PM CDT 

Three teens are in the hospital tonight after they were struck by lightning in a field in Yazoo County. 

Yazoo County Sheriff’s Deputies say the teens were in a field on Eagle Bend Road, near Highway 3.  Officials say one of the teens had to be revived and was air-lifted to University Medical Center in Jackson. 

The other two teens were taken to King’s Daughter hospital in Yazoo County with minor injuries.  The names of the teens have not been released.

Click here for lightning facts from National Geographic.

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Woman Killed in Mississippi Tornado

Reported by: RNS Newsroom Solutions

Monday, May 4, 2009 @08:40am CST

A tornado that tore through Laurel, Mississippi claimed one life there Sunday. 

The National Weather Service says a woman died when an uprooted tree slammed onto her mobile home. 

Laurel is in Jones County, Mississippi, in the southeast part of the state. 

Severe thunderstorms and twisters swept through the Deep South from southern Arkansas and Louisiana up and across into the Carolinas.

Heavy rain caused flash flooding in Tennessee and through much of the Tennessee River Valley.

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The article says that 25 people were rescued from rip currents in Florida on Sunday alone. Unbelievable.

Search for missing surfer suspended off Navarre

Teen went missing Sunday off Navarre

Troy Moon
tmoon@pnj.com

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended a search for a surfer Sunday afternoon, 18 hours after the teenager went missing Saturday evening near the Navarre Beach Pier.

Coast Guard spokesman Steve Lewallen said the search was suspended about 1 p.m. Sunday. He said 17-year-old John Stevens of Mississippi was reported missing about 6:45 p.m. Saturday, and the Coast Guard was notified about 9:35 p.m. The search will continue only if there are further developments, Lewallen said.

Dangerous rip currents have hampered activity at area beaches all weekend. On Friday, a Robertsdale, Ala., man drowned when he was caught in a rip current off Perdido Key.

On Sunday, three adults were transported to Gulf Breeze Hospital by Escambia County EMS after being pulled from the rough surf about 4:15 p.m., just east of the Portofino Island Resort. Their conditions were not known Sunday evening, but Dave Greenwood, water safety supervisor at Pensacola Beach, said all three people — two men and a woman — were breathing on their own as they were transported to the hospital.

Greenwood said four people — two couples — were reported to be in distress, but when emergency personnel arrived, one of the women had managed to make it to shore. Beach lifeguards, bystanders and rescue workers from Escambia County Fire Rescue pulled the three people from the water.

“One of the rescue people was out there on a Jet Ski trying to help them, and it hit a swell so hard that it did a back flip,” said Tim Gorrell, 20, a University of West Florida student who was at the beach with friends during the rescues. “I was worried about their safety as much as the people they went to rescue.”

Lifeguards rescued more than 25 people from dangerous surf Saturday on Pensacola Beach, and six more — including the three who were hospitalized — on Sunday.

There were 18 lifeguards on duty across Pensacola Beach on Sunday, Greenwood said.

Everyone who visited Pensacola Beach on Saturday and Sunday knew of the risks, said Bob West, Pensacola Beach public safety director.

West said beachgoers were given surf and rip-tide information at the toll both as they entered Pensacola Beach, and large red flags signaling dangerous surf and numerous signs telling people to stay our of the water were conspicuous across Santa Rosa Island.

“We even have trucks driving down the beach telling people ‘Don’t go in the Gulf,’ ” West said. “And what do people do? They go in the Gulf. All the things we do, and they still almost drown. The reality is this: On red flag days, you can’t get in the Gulf.”

Greenwood said he talked to one of the men who had to be hospitalized.

“He said he got the safety flier and knew what a red flag is,” Greenwood said. “But he didn’t think they were out that far.”

Lewallen said the search for Stevens went through the night Saturday until it was suspended Sunday afternoon. He said Coast Guard units from Pensacola and Destin used boats and helicopters to search for the teenager. The search was concentrated on about 10 miles of coastline and as far out as two miles from shore.

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Levees can’t save New Orleans from floods: report

Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:44pm EDT

By Chris Baltimore

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Bigger, higher and stronger levees cannot save New Orleans from the worst floods and the city remains vulnerable to a repeat of Hurricane Katrina, the National Academy of Sciences said on Friday.

New Orleans had the flood protection of a 350-mile network of levees, I-walls and T-walls ringing the city when Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore on August 29, 2005. The levees broke, flooding 80 percent of the city.

The hurricane killed about 1,500 people along the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused $80 billion in damages, making it the costliest U.S. natural disaster.

As Katrina demonstrated, “the risks of inundation and flooding never can be fully eliminated by protective structures no matter how large or sturdy those structures may be,” said the report by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council.

“Substantial risks” of living in flood-prone areas were never clearly communicated to residents before Katrina, it said, and simply rebuilding New Orleans and its hurricane-protection system back to pre-Katrina levels would leave the city vulnerable to another flooding disaster.

The first floor of buildings in flood-prone parts of the city should be raised at least to the 100-year flood level, which the report called a “crucial flood insurance standard.” But for heavily populated cities like New Orleans, that standard is inadequate, said the report, part of a five-part study by the academies in the wake of Katrina.

The 100-year standard basically stipulates protection based on the assumed worst damage of the worst flood in the last 100 years. It determines insurance rates for the National Flood Insurance Program administered by the federal government.

But structures in New Orleans’ most flood-prone areas have a 26 percent chance of flooding over the term of a 30-year mortgage, and the 100-year standard is “far too risky” to rely on, the report said.

Authorities should discourage settlement in flood-prone areas and encourage voluntary relocation away from them, the report said. They should also shore up electricity supplies that are key to running giant pumps that route floodwaters away from the city, the report said.

Large portions of New Orleans are below sea level, which makes it vulnerable to floods and storm surges from hurricanes. Located at the mouth of the Mississippi River delta, New Orleans is in close proximity to Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne.

The city’s levee system was tested again in September 2008, when a surge from Hurricane Gustav nearly overtopped a protective T-wall along New Orleans’ Inner Navigation Canal.

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Snakes Alive! Watch Where You’re Walking!

Snake Expert Explains Which Snakes Are Harmful, Which Aren’t

JACKSON, Miss. – There have been reports recently of snakes popping up all across Mississippi.

 

Just this week, several snakes were found in a Hattiesburg middle school. One even bit a teacher. 

Snake expert Terry Vandeventer explained that people don’t have to look very far in Mississippi to find snakes. 

Terry Vandeventer found this snake hiding under some old tin.

 

There’s no such thing as a snake repellent, Vandeventer said. Mothballs and commercial repellants don’t repel snakes. So homeowners should keep areas mowed and clean. 

Along the edge of a building that hasn’t been mowed is a good place for rats and mice, which also makes it a good place for snakes to pursue their favorite foods. Snakes are good because they destroy rats and mice, but they’re a nuisance around the house where there’s children and pets. 

“If I’m available, I’ll go remove a snake,” Vandeventer said. “I don’t charge for it or anything like that, but I would rather take away and release it where it would do some good than have it killed. I’m not snake busters.” 

Roofing materials, which Vandeventer said he calls “Katrina Tin,” that have been blown off old buildings are prime hiding places for snakes. In fact, Vandeventer found a copperhead under some roofing material with 16 WAPT cameras rolling. 

This copperhead was found hiding under old tin in Terry.

 

“Now, that is not a deadly snake, but he will ruin your day,” he said. “This is a snake found in urban areas.” 

Vandeventer said copperheads are potentially dangerous because they are venomous and they bite a fair number of people in Mississippi, but they are not considered a lethal species. In other words, he said, copperheads rarely, if ever, cause a human fatality. 

However, Vandeventer said, there have been some very close calls in the U.S. 

“It’s an animal that’s secretive, that wants to be left alone,” he said. “But when people seem them, they always make an effort to kill them. And as a result, we have a lot of bites in Mississippi from copperheads.” 

He also found a bigger snake, which was a chicken or rat snake. Both snakes were found near rodent burrow holes. 

The timber rattlesnake was once common in Mississippi, but is now rare.

 

Vandeventer showed 16 WAPT News a timber rattlesnake, or a kind brake rattlesnake. 

“This is a snake that was once common in Mississippi but is now somewhat rare,” he said. “They’ve been destroyed on a wholesale manner. This is the snake that was on the first American flag — don’t tread on me, the timber rattlesnake.” 

The Mississippi corn snake is often mistaken for the venomous copperhead and killed. In the end, Vandeventer said, the best idea is to use common sense and leave snakes alone.

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Hub City school expels 3 snakes

Officials taking precautions after teacher bitten

BRITTANY BROWN • HATTIESBURG AMERICAN • APRIL 15, 2009

HATTIESBURG — A baby snake bit an N.R. Burger Middle School teacher in her classroom, and others were found in the building two more times earlier this month.

Jas N Smith, Hattiesburg Public School District spokesman, said a baby snake was found in a classroom, a second inside a desk and a third in the school’s office. All the discoveries occurred around the first of April.

Smith said the teacher was bitten while trying to ease the snake out of her classroom with a pencil.

“The teacher was taken to the emergency room, treated and released,” said Smith, who added the teacher’s name is not being released. “She’s back at school and doing just fine.”

Dunagin Pest Control in Hattiesburg, he said, removed the snakes and inspected the campus, spraying chemicals to kill mice and insects, both part of a snake’s diet.

“The snakes were so young and small, they weren’t sure what species they were,” said Smith, who added no adult snakes or eggs were found in the school. “They’re not totally sure how the snakes got inside.”

Smith said maintenance workers have replaced a few door jams and patched small openings along the building’s exterior. As a precaution, he said, brush will be cleared from the school’s exterior.

Smith said a letter explaining the incidents will be sent home to parents.

“We’re staying on top of it,” he said. “We definitely don’t want this to happen again.”

But that might not be possible at this time of year.

“They’re starting to come out full force,” said Cody Dunnam, a herpetologist who founded Scales and Tails Inc., a free reptile rescue operation in Lumberton.

Dunnam, who has worked with snakes for the past nine years, urges Pine Belt residents to be on the lookout for reptiles.

“Snakes are cold-blooded and this continuous warm weather we’ve been having brings them out to warm up their bodies,” he said. “And anywhere you have mice or frogs, you’re going to attract snakes because that’s their basic diet.”

The Pine Belt is home to a variety of snakes including Texas rat snakes, black racers, copperheads, diamondback rattlers, cottonmouths and speckled king snakes, Dunnam said.

Mississippi has nine poisonous species: the eastern diamondback, coral snake, timber rattlesnake and two species each of copperheads, cotton mouths and pigmy snakes.

“If you see a snake, the best thing to do is to just leave it alone,” Dunnam advises.

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MDOT to use Twitter during hurricane season

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • APRIL 15, 2009

JACKSON — Too busy fleeing from a hurricane to decide which evacuation route to take in Mississippi? You may want to check your cell phone or laptop for a tweet.

 

The Mississippi Department of Transportation will use the micro-blogging platform Twitter.com to relay information to evacuees during the upcoming hurricane season. Twitter allows users to post 140 characters that can be viewed by anyone with Internet access.

The tweets — Twitter posts — can be sent or received on either a computer or cell phone.

 

MDOT has created six separate Twitter feeds to provide route-specific traffic information to evacuees traveling on Interstates 10, 20, 55, 59 and U.S. Highways 49 and 98.