Fitler-Delta City-Isola, MS (Inverness Part 2) F5 Tornado – February 21, 1971 (FREE)

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This is the second of a three-part series focusing on the Delhi, LA-Inverness, MS F5 tornado of February 21, 1971. This summary explores the twister at the height of its power in rural farmland, from the state border with Mississippi through Cameta plantation, Delta City, and up to the Isola area.

We are overwhelmingly grateful to our contributors for this summary series. Only through their aid can the full story of this tornado and those affected be told. Deborah Jacobs and Leslie Miller were instrumental in helping me reach others to document this history. Without them, this summary would be truly incomplete. The same can be said for April Wilson and Janet Whitfield, who both went far out of their way to make sure I was able to use their photos, videos, and as accurate information as possible. Mary Corban and James French were able to show us some helpful newspapers. I am very grateful to Josh Miller for putting me in contact with Leslie. Thank you to Joel Sandifer and Sarah Strong for allowing me to interview them and record their stories in their own words. Lastly, thank you to Laura Hollis for writing down her recollections for this summary.

Around 3:40 pm CST and 3.1 miles WNW of Fitler, a 1,100-yard (0.63 mile) wide vortex glided over the waters of the Mississippi River and into Issaquena County in far eastern Mississippi. This storm was already deadly; in Louisiana, it had just killed ten members of a single family. Moving northeast at more than 50 mph, it quickly grew in size and power, punching through 1.7 miles of forest.

Along State Highway 1 sits the heart of the Lockwood Plantation. The first structures were erected here in 1822, with the family plantation established in 1885. The descendants still reside on some of this land. Janet Whitfield is one of those people and a vital contributor to this summary. Her dedication to stewarding her family history is inspiring. All details and photos regarding this area come exclusively from what she shared.

Since the tornado tracked perpendicularly across Highway 1, the families along it were hit simultaneously. Janet printed out a 1967 USGS aerial photo I provided her and consulted with a brother, an aunt, and a cousin to create the detailed labeled view of the hard-hit stretch. Of the six houses and two trailers occupied, only Mayme Stuart’s home was not a total loss.

On the northwest side, the Ben White Jr. home was unroofed. The Taylor McGrider and Grace Heath site-built structures, the Tallulah Hunting Club, and the Ben White store were lost. The Tom and Ellis Stuart family trailers on the southeastern fringe fell to pieces. There were no injuries in either of these dwellings. Janet recounted to me, “Uncle Tom was in the process of frying fish for his family when the storm hit. When the trailer was destroyed, no one was hurt. Yet another blessing since he had the grease hot to fry fish.”

Janet was three years old when her farm was wrecked. Her father, Frank Stuart, and the family left just 5-10 minutes before the tornado hit to take her grandmother some fish. In Janet’s words, “We got down the road just a couple miles, and Daddy said it was looking really bad and we probably needed to turn around. When we got back, this is what we found. The Lord had bigger plans for our lives that day. He spared our lives, unlike many others in the twisters’ paths.”

In addition to Janet, the Nuckoll family had a close call in front of Lockwood Plantation. They were enveloped by the vortex. Pecan trees fell in front and behind their car, with a limb damaging the vehicle. A Stuart family account sent to a local newspaper and provided by Janet stated that none of them were seriously hurt.

The central building on the property was the Lockwood Plantation Home. This massive rustic house was originally built between 1820 and 1830 but was still in excellent condition in 1971. The skeleton and second story was of hand-hewn logs, with the first floor entirely constructed of 18-inch thick, solid brick walls. This sturdy building was likely the strongest within a several-mile radius. Dozens of large pecan trees stood guard over it.

None of that mattered against such a high-end tornado. The stately dwelling received a direct hit and was raked apart. The top story vanished, with only a portion of the first-floor walls standing in the rubble. The stout hardwood trees surrounding it snapped like toothpicks and were minorly debarked. Altee and Addie Lou White, who lived here, were hospitalized with serious injuries.

One unusual possession to be recovered was Janet’s baby doll, Lucy. It was found completely intact in one of the pecan trees but with the clothes shredded. This doll is still in her possession.

As a child, Janet remembered the years it took to slowly rebuild the estate. Though it may never return to its pre-tornado stature, Lockwood plantation survived through the efforts of this tight-knit clan. A storm shelter was also added to the property. In 1985 it became a Mississippi Centennial Farm, and remains in the family to this day.

Speeding further into central Issaquena County, the outer windfield reached an expansive maximum diameter of 2,000 yards (1.14 miles). Closer to the core, three isolated tenant homes were destroyed, and eight others were likely damaged in some way. Across some three miles of tree-farm land on Grant Road, five further residences were encompassed by the circulation. Two of those were reduced to empty plots, with tattered debris dumped into a small bayou across the street.

From here, the tornado raked through 3.4 miles of tree growth. NASA Earth Resources Laboratory aerial imagery depicted a striking gash of snapped, crushed, and shredded trees that bisected the woods. These were felled in highly convergent patterns, leaving a trace of ordered destruction in what was otherwise a chaotic mess.

A mile and a half further on, the vortex sped over Highway 14. The Booker family’s large mobile home was set back from the road almost directly on the Issaquena/Sharkey County line. This is about three miles west of Rolling Fork. The structure was launched due east across a bayou into the opposite bank. Delia Booker, 85, drowned after landing in the water. She was the first fatality of the day in Mississippi. The March 4th, 1971 Deer Creek Pilot, noted that five of her grand-nieces and nephews and three other individuals were injured at that property.

Just into Sharkey County and three-quarters of a mile to the east-northeast, a small plantation sustained moderate damage. One tenant house was dashed apart. Otherwise, it was about three miles until more dwellings were affected. At times, there was severe dirt scouring in fields.

An isolated estate graced the northern side of Highway 14. We noticed this site in the NASA aerial imagery. Glenn Jennings and Phyllis Lee recounted their harrowing stories in the replies section of a 2019 Facebook post marking the anniversary. Based on Glenn’s description, these comments were matched to the location.

On a different Facebook post, Linda Sanderford Caldwell commented, “I remember debris strewn around and a dead snake hanging from a tree limb.” Unfortunately, we could not establish contact with any of these individuals, but their stories are too important to leave out of this summary. The image below shows the damage at the locations referenced.

Crossing and recrossing Deer Creek, another five miles of rural farmland slipped by. During this time, only five small tenant dwellings and one site-built farmhouse were severely damaged or destroyed. Two dense groves of trees were splintered and mashed to the ground with extreme force. Mangled farm equipment was tossed roughly 60 yards, and a 70-foot bridge at a stream crossing vanished.

Less than a mile and a quarter to the southeast of Nitta Yuma in open fields was Cameta Plantation. The heart of the estate was clustered at the crossroads of Highway 61 (also known as Blues Highway) and Cameta Road. The intersection featured a massive metal cotton gin, a store, and six residences. A number of other dwellings and a church were scattered across the fields nearby.

Cameta suffered near-total obliteration. All structures were leveled, many swept clean and granulated into splinters strewn into the distance. Dirt fields, hard-packed gravel, and grass were scoured. In a February 23, 1971 publication, Delta Democrat-Times staff writer Lincoln Warren noted after an aerial survey that “The great pile of metal at what had been the Cameta cotton gin was pushed into one great heap of gray mass.” All else left standing “were tree trunks stripped of bark, limbs, and leaves.”

Unfortunately, we found little other concrete information save that 15 families from the area eventually received emergency housing. We confirmed that Tyrene Sardin, 34, and Saul Hendricks, 66, were killed at Cameta. We think it’s possible that Lillian Murray, 74, was also a fatality here. This is based on consistent newspaper reports and a corresponding 1950 census showing such an individual did live at that location. However, we cannot confirm that Lillian died because of a lack of official records.

Thanks to the efforts of Leslie Miller, we were able to arrange an interview with Joel Sandifer, who was born on the farm and whose father managed Cameta for 50 years. He could not recall many details, but he did believe that no one was home that afternoon at the residences destroyed on the west side of Highway 61, which limited the number of killed and injured. He guessed that about 15-20 individuals lived at the crossroads. The gin was rebuilt, and to this day it is the only structure that remains.

Joel was familiar with Tyrene, one of the fatalities. The reason he knew Mr. Sardin was, “he did a lot of what we call the spray rigs, spray cotton, because his job during the summer was that, spraying chemicals on top of the cotton. The reason I knew him so well is because those rigs were bad about turning over. He’d always turn one over and never get hurt – and then get killed by a tornado.”

Today, Cameta exists only as a name on a map and a lone cotton gin. There is no longer any population at this location.

The tornado crossed Deer Creek twice more, stripping all bark and branches from some trees on its banks. Only five residences were destroyed over the next four miles. A curiosity was found with a large storage tank positioned at the intersection of some fields. Based on analysis of the NASA aerial photos, it was likely that the steel container was for diesel storage. It measured about 96 inches in diameter and 24 feet long. An empty one of this size would weigh approximately five tons but could hold as much as 25 additional tons of fuel.

The container was initially located 350 yards northwest of the twister’s centerline. Impact marks revealed that it flipped once southwest, bounced, and rolled towards the east and southeast until 150 yards from the heart of low pressure. The tank went airborne, with only very sparse impacts to the ground for 300 yards. It slung around the vortex to the southeast, then northeast, then northwest, and once again northeast. The tornado was still racing at near highway speeds and eventually left it behind. The heavy object finally rolled to a stop southeast of the centerline, completing a 1,115-yard (0.63-mile) journey.

It was just a little village, that’s all it was.

Sarah Strong

Before February 21, 1971, Delta City, MS, was a small, quiet agricultural community. The population was concentrated on the intersection of Old Rail and Delta City Roads. It was a hub for community, supplies, and education to all the surrounding farms. The place boasted churches, a school, and several shops with residences strung out on roads from this central area.

I ain’t got no house. It took it away. It took them all down - wood houses, brick houses, church houses and all.

Jesse Hudson

Every aspect of life here changed at approximately 4:10 pm CST. The circulation spent mere seconds in town but went right for the jugular of the community. An analysis of aerial imagery revealed about 12 residences damaged and 31 destroyed, some ground down to just foundations. Cars and pickups were sent flying, and trees partially debarked.

A before and after view of Delta City proper. U.S. Geological Survey before imagery taken February 25, 1966, and after NASA Earth Resources Laboratory aerial imagery taken February 23, 1971.

Most businesses were lost, including Seale Used Furniture, the Post Office/Parish Trading Post, and an unknown store. The Sharkey County Barn was severely damaged. An old, heavily-built school and gymnasium also collapsed. Fortunately, neither of those last structures were still in use.

The imposing Kin-Gin cotton gin appeared as if compressed by a giant trash compactor. A large section of steel hoppers around 45 feet across punched clean through the center of a home, only leaving exterior walls on either side standing. It broke in two, with a 30-foot portion ultimately ending up about 230 yards from where it began and 80 yards past the house it broke through. In addition, a number of steel containers at the Kin-Gin were smashed apart, with portions scattered hundreds of yards.

Across the street, Delta City United Methodist church crumbled on itself. In May 1971, a donation of $25,000 was made by the Jackson Area of the United Methodist Church for reconstruction. It is unknown whether the rebuilding was completed. Delta City First Baptist Church lost its roof and was battered beyond repair. That structure was quickly rebuilt and held its first service since the tornado on August 22, 1971.

Then, from afar off in the south they saw the funnel cloud slowly approaching, picking its way through the flat terrain of winter fallowed cottonfields with all the finesse of a wood chopper in a flower garden.

A. B. Williams Jr. family

That was the A. B. Williams Jr. family’s description of the approaching threat. Others described sighting just a black cloud. Well warned by television bulletins, the family on the eastern outskirts watched it approach and braced for impact. The tornado missed them and instead struck A. B. Williams Jr.’s parent’s home in town. Per a February 1971 edition of the Mississippi Farm Bureau News, “As Mrs. Williams, Sr., ran into the house, she took a good look at the two funnels swooping down to earth from the cloud that then was boiling black like a burning tire.” Mrs. Williams Sr. hid underneath a bed as the roof was plucked off the structure.

After finding his mother unharmed, A.B Williams Jr. commandeered her car and began taking neighbors to the hospital. The paper stated that “A plank had taken away part of a lady’s shoulder. But shock prevented it from bleeding.”

Eight people perished in the Delta City area. The death toll would likely have been much greater were it not for the advance notice. A tornado warning had been issued at 3:20 pm CST by the National Weather Service (NWS) in Jackson. This provided an exceptional 50-minute lead time before impact. Many took it seriously; some drove to other locations for better shelter, while others stayed put and watched the sky.

An editorial in the February 26, 1971, Delta Democrat-Times noted the survival of a woman named Annie Boykin. “When she saw the funnel cloud coming, she braced herself behind the refrigerator and rode out the tornado which, meanwhile, was demolishing the rest of her property. Aside from bruises and scratches, our old friend Miss Annie is okay.”

Ruth Sylvester’s dinner of “a little boiled ham and eggs,” and “some ice cream and cake for dessert,” was interrupted by the destruction of her property. The February 28, 1971, Clarion-Ledger described the 76-year-old as the “‘grandmother’ to all the children of Delta City.” She stood in the corner of her house as it was reduced to rubble. Two of four dogs and four out of her five cats were killed. Unscratched and undaunted, she described her future intentions to the newspaper. “My nephew doesn’t want me to build back. He wants me to come to Meridian and live in a house trailer. But I couldn’t do that. I’ll build another little house here. This is my home.”

Ruth Sylvester standing in the ruins of her home. 28 Feb 1971, Sun The Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, Louisiana) Newspapers.com

Did you ever see a man go broke, but still be happy he’s alive? I know that may sound funny, but I’m as happy as I can be.

Quinton Parish

Quinton Parish ran what was a combination of the post office and a general store called Parish Trading Post. This structure was blown apart, but containers and fixtures like the counter were left in place. A reporter noted that a box of cornflakes was still sitting untouched on a shelf.

A pig taking advantage of unprotected food from the destroyed Parish Trading Post. 09 Mar 1971, Tue The Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Mississippi) Newspapers.com

Despite this loss, the postmaster’s number one priority in the following days was keeping the mail running. An American flag was hoisted above the ruins, and according to a Delta Democrat Times article two days later, he was attempting to have a temporary small metal building set up on the location for the post. The family of one contributor to this summary, April Wilson, helped to salvage his supplies and groceries by using a bean truck and loading what they recovered into a grain bin on their farm.

In addition to the narratives compiled from newspaper accounts, we were honored to have Laura Hollis and Sarah Strong share their personal recollections with us.

Sarah, who worked for the USDA, lived then in Delta City. That day, however, she was in Rolling Fork. The night before, her fiance’s home was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. “The day just started off kind of strange, it had a heavy atmosphere or something to it. It was just a strange day,” Sarah explained to me. “About mid-afternoon we saw the clouds getting kinda bad so we got in the car and rode toward Anguilla. We could see the tornado there. And then we turned around and went toward Cary, and we could see the one on the ground there” (A summary containing truly remarkable stories and pictures regarding that second tornado is currently in progress). Neither twister appeared as more than a black cloud.

After witnessing the first and second deadliest tornadoes of the 1970s in the United States, Sarah knew she needed to get back home. She first attempted to drive north up Highway 61 but could not make it through due to the destruction at Cameta. Sarah, along with a cousin and that person’s husband, was able to circle behind the community and enter from the opposite direction. After much searching, all of her family was accounted for. Her home was also undamaged.

“It was just a quaint little town, it had the old houses, the cotton gin, two churches, about four stores, the trees were green in the summertime… and that was just really heartbreaking to see the town after the results of that. There were two churches – I was supposed to get married at one of those churches, in April of that year, April the 10th, and we had to move that wedding to Anguilla.”

Laura was also a resident of Delta City. Many thanks to her for typing out and sending us her personal story, which is copied below.

“The day of the tornado was a Sunday. My parents had left my younger sister and myself at home while they traveled to Jackson, MS to a church meeting of some kind. I was 15 at the time and my sister was 9.

I don’t know if we had heard there was bad weather coming but I started talking about a tornado. My sister didn’t know what a tornado was so we had gotten out the encyclopedia. After we started reading about it , she decided she wasn’t staying home alone with me so we went across the street to our best friends’ house… our grandparents were across the street also. It was just our 3 houses in that stretch of road.

We stayed outside and played basketball for a couple of hours until it began to rain. We went inside completely oblivious to what would happen! All of a sudden the rain stopped and the sky was a very strange color. We all walked out the front door to look at the sky. We heard the roar and saw a gigantic mass coming towards us. The dad yelled for everyone to get inside. I remember just standing in their den seeing tall shrubs blowing down to the ground.

We ran to the closet but by the time we got there it was over. Britch Patterson, the dad, told us he was going to town, which was about a 1/2 mile to check on things. I remember he came back almost immediately and told his wife that it was bad, really bad and he was going back to help.

Our parents knew nothing. When they got about 10 miles from home, they began to see destruction. By the time they were 2 to 3 miles from home, houses were gone or roofs blown off. We always say the tornado was coming straight for us but it hit our great uncle’s house not a quarter mile away and blew his roof off and it turned and headed to town. Needless to say my mother was hysterical by the time they could see our 3 houses, untouched! It was eerie going home and seeing that encyclopedia opened up to tornadoes!

I didn’t see the destruction until the next day. Everything we had known in this small town was gone! Churches, grocery stores, post office, gas station, cotton gin, houses were just rubble. Beautiful old trees and homes were just gone.”

Far greater than the material losses were the eight lives taken by the maelstrom at this location. Among that number was Jesse Ausborn, 61, and his sister-in-law Ruby Ausborn, 49. According to the February 24, 1971, Delta Democrat-Times, Jesse owned a general merchandise store for several years. He left behind a mother and brother. Ruby had spent many years working at Sharkey-Issaquena County Hospital and was then employed at Humphreys County Hospital. She was survived by two sisters and a brother.

Sam Crawford, 58, and brother Leborn Crawford, 54, were stated to be farm workers who had lived in Delta City since childhood. Both left behind their father and brother, and Leborn, his wife.

Euna Price, 68, also lost her life. The February 25, 1971, Deer Creek Pilot said that she was a Hattiesburg native and a retired Licensed Practical Nurse. She was survived by two brothers, four children, and 40 grandchildren.

Charlie Hogan, 28, was killed as well. No information about him was found.

Emett Crawford, 85, died in the hospital 41 days later of his injuries. Per the April 4, 1971, Delta Democrat-Times, Emett was a retired farmer that had lived in Delta City for over 25 years. He left behind a sister, a son, and two nephews.

Multiple newspapers confirmed that a nine-month-old baby named Sharon or Michelle Pasco was dead upon arrival at South Washington County Hospital. Some listings lump her into the Delta City area, but a few give her location as Murphy. It seems most likely that she was killed in one of the more rural farmhouses hit just northeast of Delta City proper.

The tornado continued without pause to the northeast across rural farmland. Two residences on Price Road were torn apart, a combine was mangled into itself, and hardwood trees were partially debarked.

The vortex passed into southeastern Washington County, two miles NE of Delta City. Three small dwellings were decimated, and a couple of others were damaged. Pronounced ground scarring continued to be evident in aerial imagery.

Two miles later, the arc of devastation intersected with Murphy Road in the Willet area, or three miles west of Murphy. A two-story house was blown and fragmented from its foundation, and a mobile home was destroyed. A handful of farm buildings to the east experienced heavy roofing loss.

Up Frye Road, two dwellings and a half-dozen outbuildings were battered or dismantled. A dump truck was knocked on its side, a car and large tank were blown into a snapped grove, and a pickup was dragged into a bayou.

Three and a half more miles of dirt fields were traversed before the tornado again came into contact with structures. Four residences were lost at the intersection of Tribbett Road and Highway 12. Two were site-built homes that were leveled and swept to their foundations. Four combines weighing greater than 10 tons were flipped about like toys. Two other houses had lesser damage.

Nothing more was hit over the last two miles inside Washington County, with the twister crossing the Sunflower River into far western Humphreys County 6.7 miles SW of Isola. The five miles spent until the border of Humphreys and Sunflower Counties saw little change in either tornado or population hit. A total of eight sporadic residences were destroyed, and another six were affected to lesser degrees. According to several accounts, there were two fatalities west of Isola. Unfortunately, no details were found on these individuals.

At one annihilated household, a variety of vehicles were knocked substantial distances. While starting at nearly the same location, they were scattered in directions ranging from the southwest to the northeast of the property. Most ended up within 100 yards of their origin points. Aerial photos showed that another was lofted and bounced about 385 yards ENE, though the type is unknown as it was removed before the imagery date. Oddly, a flatbed trailer more than a quarter mile to the east was rolled about the same distance north-northeast – despite a home close to its origin point sustaining little more than shingle loss.

Around 4:30 pm CST, the mighty tornado rolled out of Humphreys and into southern Sunflower County, 3.1 miles WNW of Isola. From there, the historic rampage continued, soon colliding with the most populated areas it would devastate and the town it would become remembered by.

Recovery

Back in Delta City, residents began to face a slow and painful recovery that would take many years. In the papers, several locals expressed little hope of their community surviving. One letter to the editor in a March 28, 1971 publication was a self-described obituary for the town. Some did not have the resources to fully rebuild, and stores disappeared for good.

Cleanup underway in Delta City. 23 Feb 1971, Tue Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi) Newspapers.com

According to several editions of The Delta Democrat-Times, it took until November 1973 for the reconstruction of Delta City’s sewer and water systems to be completed. However, the sewer lines were tied to the creation of a new nearby treatment plant, which was only finished in 1975. Even still, it was not until September 1976 – five and a half years after the tornado – that they were able to use it due to systems not meeting EPA standards.

Fundamental to the issues facing it was the larger economic landscape. Mechanization began to take its toll on the Mississippi Delta in the mid-20th century, eating away at the need for manual labor. The fiscal base of the region was already in decline in 1971, and that included Delta City. It’s unknown what the population was that year, but given that 95 individuals lost their homes, it could have been upwards of 150. As of the 2020 census, the number of residents has dropped to 70. Today, despite the two-fold blows of tornadic and economic change, there remains a largely elderly but close, tight-knit community continuing to persist in this rural landscape.

Part three coming soon!