One of the more obscure early morning tornadoes of April 27, 2011, tore through the community of Belmont, MS. Striking in the dead of night, it caught many residents completely off guard.
A weak tornado formed at 3:43 am CDT, starting 5.1 miles SW of Belmont at the intersection of County Roads 864 and 9. The tornado moved northeast and left only a vague trail of sporadically uprooted trees. It remained in this weakened state over a 4.5-mile period before crossing out of rural forest into western portions of Belmont. Trees were sent crashing onto homes in a neighborhood just off of Washington Street. The tornado began to rapidly strengthen and destroyed a high school baseball field, tearing metal poles out of the ground.
Just to the northeast, another neighborhood was struck at EF1 intensity. Most homes avoided more than the loss of some windows and shingles, but a handful were more substantially damaged by falling trees. In addition, one wall of another home collapsed. A mobile home was tumbled 20 yards off of Ebenezer Street. A man inside sustained minor injuries.
Fortunately, none of the residential areas experienced the worst of the tornado. This was especially important for several reasons. It was 3:48 am CDT, and many were sound asleep. No tornado warning was issued, and even if there had been a warning, many residents did not keep a method of receiving weather alerts when asleep. By the time many were awoken by the noise and scrambled for shelter, the tornado was already gone.
The tornado crossed 2nd Street and briefly strengthened to a high-end EF2. A corner of a metal-framed industrial building was flattened, and two others lost most of their roofs. A large, wood-framed building belonging to Red Bud Supply was completely destroyed, with only a couple of walls left standing. Adjacent trees were largely stripped of foliage and delimbed. Several other nearby buildings sustained minor roof damage. Just east of the businesses along Old Mississippi 25, one person was trapped in a vehicle by a falling tree. Since the tornado struck at night, there was no one inside any businesses when the tornado hit.
0 Comments