Hope you all are ok. Very sorry to hear about this morning.

Agreed! Hope everyone is accounted for

What happened. Couldn't find anything online

Hope everyone is ok, these freak tornadoes are horrible.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. It's eerie that Hattiesburg is facing its second strong tornado in 4 years.

If you haven't heard yet a strong tornado ripped through Forest and Lamar counties where both Southern Miss and William Carey University (NAIA Private college) are located. Southern Miss was unharmed. However,William Carey received a direct hit and sustained heavy damage. All students are accounted for at both universities, and some at WCU did receive non-life threatening injuries (including a WCU soccer player whose fingers were vacuum slammed shut in a door). The tornado then hit the southern part of downtown Hattiesburg and moved east to the neighboring city of Petal, both receiving heavy damage. All in all heavy damage was sustained and tragically 3 deaths have been reported.

I echo the sentiments above the above posters. Also, an additional round of severe weather is possible later today and tonight. Those in the SE U.S. should keep an eye on the weather today and listen to your local emergency management.

Photos of the damage at WCU: https://www.facebook.com/WmCareyU/posts/...7638462242

4 dead confirmed so far. There is a lot of major damage. Prayers for all involved.

Another one? Wow. Thoughts are definitely with all those effected.

Yes. Forecasts has almost same weather pattern tonight from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm as what came through this morning

(01-21-2017 07:05 PM)usm99 Wrote:  Yes. Forecasts has almost same weather pattern tonight from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm as what came through this morning

Practically unheard of...

Lived in H'burg for nearly a half century (workin' on my 2nd half now, unfortunately), and we always bragged that H'burg did not have tornadoes because the Hub City was down in a little river valley.....Two twisters in 5 years should make even Jim Cantore a little inquisitive.

(Besides, Laurel is supposed to be home of the Tornadoes...and their H.S. even has a mean-looking twister on their end zone scoreboard to prove it.)

My daughter in H-Town sez everyone has the nervous puddin' tonight because of the first two...

Purvis, just down the road, is also the Tornadoes. According to Wikipedia, they suffered a major direct hit 1908, then chose Tornadoes as a mascot. The system that spawned that 1908 twister killed 324 people in 13 states.
Hell of a choice for a mascot.

(01-21-2017 08:28 PM)Noodles Wrote:  Purvis, just down the road, is also the Tornadoes. According to Wikipedia, they suffered a major direct hit 1908, then chose Tornadoes as a mascot. The system that spawned that 1908 twister killed 324 people in 13 states.
Hell of a choice for a mascot.

Interesting tidbit there, noodles, 'specially since lotta my kinfolk live right down the road in (gulp) the sprawling community of Baxterville, Miss'ippi!

Thanks for everyone's concern. Three of the four killed were in a trailer park near Willian Carey, and the fourth was in a subdivision about a mile and a half as the crow flies from me.

I've been working this. Here is some drone footage of William Carey University. Not one building was spared.

youtu.be/7fEpYN3xfec

So my wife and I currently live downtown in Hattiesburg. We were woken up at 3am to the alarm and sat in the hallway with our neighbors for about two hours. I can tell you this, when you are in that situation and you feel the air pressure change, the rain stops and you know that you are in the vicinity of a tornado like that, I don't care how big of a man you are, it is pretty damn terrifying.

We were lucky enough that the impact was about 4 blocks away from us and it was pretty devastating. We have been helping with volunteer work when we can. When people say you don't grasp the magnitude of such damage until you see it in person, they aren't lying.