Overview of the February 21-22, 1971 Mississippi Delta Tornado Outbreak

This tornado began at approximately 4:05 pm CST, about 2.9 miles ENE of Fitler, MS. It quickly approached the community of Cary, first striking Evanna Plantation on the southern fringe. The destruction here was easily among the most extreme in the entire Delta Outbreak. All structures were swept away, mostly ground to small fragments strewn near and far. Cars and vehicles were smashed, rolled, bounced, or completely lofted hundreds of yards. The worst were virtually unrecognizable. The ground was scoured, and trees were shredded of bark by all manner of shrapnel.

Another primary feature of southern Cary was the Bellgrade Lumber Company. Most of the workers lived in the adjacent Bellgrade Quarters to the south. This poorer, packed neighborhood was predominantly the African-American portion of town, and it was almost entirely razed. A total of 13 died at Cary.

The rest of the path through Sharkey was very rural, and we know little about the twister during that time. It continued northeast into Humphreys County, destroying a dozen residences in the Gooden Lake area and killing seven. The violent twister passed just 2.3 miles west of Belzoni, temporarily cutting power and communication. The Castleman estate was then destroyed, along with a few scattered dwellings in northeastern portions of the County.

In southwestern Leflore County, the twister erased the small community of Pugh City. Consisting of about 50 homes and a number of stores, almost everything was either irreparable or obliterated. Around 26 died in the region, most at Pugh City. A few were probably from rural spots further upwind or downwind, but were lumped into this tally by local sources. Pugh City could not recover, and soon ceased to exist.

The tornado grazed the southeastern side of Swiftown. The three residences unlucky enough to sustain direct hits were eradicated, and almost all buildings suffered some form of damage or were crushed by trees. Two died. The next several miles saw the vortex paralleling and eventually crossing north of Highway 7. Every single structure along this thoroughfare from Swiftown to Morgan City was eviscerated. The amount of dwellings lost numbered around 35.

Morgan City was and remains a small town with a population of just over 200. The central part of the community was able to escape with not much more than minor roofing loss, but the northwestern side was not so fortunate. Almost a dozen residences were destroyed, along with several notable structures. At least three lives were taken here, though since some were likely mixed into the Pugh City total, it could have been as high as six.

The twister continued deeper into central Leflore County, hitting occasional groups of structures. Around 2.9 miles WNW of downtown Greenwood, the tornado passed over Highway 82, killing two in their vehicle. The Money area in northeastern Leflore near the Yalobusha River was hard hit, resulting in another four dead.

The tornado only churned through the extreme northwestern corner of Carroll County for a mile before entering southwestern Grenada County. USGS aerial imagery from years later still showed an impressively wide swath of entirely razed forest. Here, we decided on a conservative maximum width of 2,140 yards (1.22 miles), though this could be an underestimation due to the absence of finer-scale imagery close after the event. A March 19, 1971, Red Cross damage report stated that within the county, 26 were injured; seven dwellings were destroyed; 20 dwellings were damaged; 14 farm buildings were destroyed; and ten farm buildings with major damage.

In southeastern Tallahatchie County, it trekked less than a mile southeast of Cascilla, causing significant damage across the area. The February 24, 1972 Mississippi Sun recounted that during the ten miles spent in the county, 11 houses, five trailers, and one church were “destroyed beyond repair.”

The southern and eastern outskirts of Tillatoba in Yalobusha County were next in line, with a half dozen properties in the locality hard-hit. From here, it made a slight jog further east into the little-inhabited Holly Springs National Forest. At approximately 6:05 pm CST, dissipation occurred 7.2 miles northeast of Tillatoba.