Storms damage airport, planes

Published 5:00 am Monday, June 6, 2005

Storms swept through Brookhaven late Sunday afternoon and thismorning, dumping more than 4 inches of rain on the area, accordingto the weather station at the Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson said the only damagereported was at the Brookhaven Municipal Airport, where threeairplane hangars were damaged.

Boyce Bullock, airport manager, said high winds blew the roofcompletely off one hangar, which then pulled the roof down on twoadditional hangars. The damage was reported between 6 and 7 p.m.Sunday.

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Bullock said hangars 13, 14 and 15 were damaged, with themajority of the damage occurring to hangar 15, in which KeithWhite’s airplane was stored. Bullock said White’s plane sufferedonly minor damage to a light lens on the plane’s wing.

In hangars 13 and 14, the roof collapsed onto two airplanes, oneof which belongs to John Coleman. Bullock said the roof had fallenand came within a few inches of touching the top of the tail wingof Coleman’s plane. He said the plane also had a few scrapes on thewing.

Bullock said it will be some time before insurance adjusters areable to come out to survey the damage.

Also attributed to the storm, power outages continued to plaguethe Brookhaven and the Wesson area this morning, according to JimHedges, customer service manager with Entergy.

“We’re down to 183 customer outages from 800,” Hedges saidaround 8:45 a.m.

The height of electrical outages occurred around 5:30 thismorning, Hedges said, adding that severe lightening caused most ofthe outages.

“We estimate service will be restored by 2 p.m.,” saidHedges.

Lucy Shell, member service director for Magnolia Electric, saidapproximately 1,500 Magnolia Electric members were without powerbetween 5:41 a.m. and 8:10 a.m. A breaker was destroyed due tolightening, she said.

“Most of these customers will be in the Heuck’s Retreat area,”she said.

An additional 40 members in southeast Lincoln County around thePleasant Grove area were also with out power, Shell said.

Shell said most, if not all, of the members should have theirpower restored by 9 a.m.

Lincoln County Civil Defense Director Clifford Galey reportedseveral trees down in the county and several power outages, inaddition to the damage at the airport.

Galey also said there was one report of flooding on CedarStreet. As of 9 a.m. today, there were no active watches orwarnings in effect, he said.

The forecast for the rest of the day calls for scattered showersand thunderstorms with highs in the mid-80s. Rain is also possibletonight with lows in the lower 70s.