First responders worked in Tuesday afternoon storms
Published 11:00 am Wednesday, June 5, 2024
- East Lincoln Volunteer Firefighters Hayden Waldon and Donnie "Speedy" Hedgepeth. (Hunter Cloud | File Photo The Daily Leader)
BROOKHAVEN —Tuesday afternoon’s severe thunderstorms brought wrecks and fire to the area. A beautiful sunrise greeted Lincoln County Wednesday morning in contrast.
McComb’s weather observation station was down during the storm but the next nearest weather observation station in Hammond and Jackson measured wind gusts between 43 mph and 47 mph around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Mississippi Highway Patrol Troop M was busy starting around 5 p.m. as the storm moved through the area at rush hour. MHP Troop M Public Information Officer Craig James reported the troop worked a one vehicle crash at US-84 near Lower Meadville Road in Lincoln County around 5:30 p.m. Zetus Volunteer Fire Department and KDMC were also dispatched to the wreck.
“Several other calls were answered for vehicles leaving the roadway,” James said. “Most didn’t constitute a ‘crash,’ due to lack of property damage.”
Donnie “Speedy” Hedgepeth with East Lincoln Volunteer Fire Department confirmed they responded to a fire Tuesday evening. The call came in at 6:49 p.m.
“Lightning struck a pine tree next to a mobile home and caught the plastic underneath on fire,” Hedgepeth said. “We contained it to just that. No further damage to the home.”
Lincoln County and Brookhaven are not out of the woods yet. The National Weather Service in Jackson forecast a 60 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms Wednesday into the afternoon. Storms could move through the area with damaging wind gusts and hail up to a quarter in size around 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday night’s chances of storm is 60 percent and Thursday has a 40 percent chance of rain before sunshine is forecast from Friday until Sunday.