Storms produced possible tornadoes near in Lowndes County late Sunday night, killing one man and leaving severe damage in Columbus and Crawford. Crawford resident Willie Hubbard, 48, was killed after a tree or large limb fell on his mobile home caving in the roof. A reported 30 people were injured in Crawford and Columbus alone.
Fifty-five people were reported injured in Lowndes County. Around 60 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
Mississippi University for Women sustained massive structural damage on campus and is currently closed indefinitely.
“The fine arts building was destroyed along with the auditorium,” Amy Carruth, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman, said. “It is unclear when students will be able to go back to school.”
Other structures on the MUW campus were also damaged.
Some roads in and out of Columbus were still blocked Monday evening.
The storm also knocked out power across the whole city of Columbus.
Numerous trees and powerlines were down across the county according to National Weather service storm reports.
Many storm reports showed that in Lowndes, Attala, Noxubee and Leake counties several trees and powerlines fell. Some Lowndes County residents reported losing their roofs during the storms.
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove visited the Crawford and Columbus sites on Monday afternoon to survey the damage left behind.
“We are truly grateful this afternoon because there was no loss of life in the Columbus area,” Musgrove said. “It is amazing after seeing the damage that no one was killed.”
Earlier on Monday, Musgrove signed a bill to declare Lowndes County a state of emergency.
“I signed the bill earlier today and have asked the National Guard to come in tonight for security reasons,” Musgrove said.
Musgrove continued to say that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will arrive on Wednesday to estimate the damage.
Sunday evening, east central Mississippi braced for storms that brought hail, strong winds and tornadoes.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., issued a tornado watch around 4 p.m. Sunday. The watch meant that conditions were favorable for tornado development.
“Early indications showed us that there would be severe weather on Sunday or Monday morning,” MSU meteorology instructor Doug Gillham said. “Many think that severe weather cannot occur during the fall, when actually, November falls in the second season for severe weather.
“It is not unusual to see severe weather in the fall, but to see an outbreak of this magnitude is rare.”
Late in the afternoon on Sunday, storms started to pop up around the region.
“With all of the sunshine we saw Sunday afternoon, the atmosphere was just waiting for the right conditions to occur,” Matthew East, MSU senior and meteorologist at WTVA, said.
The National Weather Serviace started to issue tornado warnings were first for the Golden Triangle area around 6:30 p.m.
A tornado warning means that either a tornado has been seen by spotters or emergency personnel or been indicated on doppler weather radar.
The NWS in Jackson issued a tornado warning for Lowndes County at 7:35 p.m. effective until 7:55 p.m.
Damage reports followed the first round of storms that occurred in Lowndes County.
“Before long, we knew that parts of Lowndes County had been hit pretty hard,” East said.
Earlier tornado warnings had been issued for Oktibbeha County; however, no significant damage was reported.
“We were around the GTR (Golden Triangle Regional) Airport and saw a wall-cloud (beginnings of a tornado),” Greg Nordstrom, MSU senior and North Mississippi Storm Intercept Team member, said. “We knew then that we were in the wrong place.”
The second tornado warning that was issued by the NWS for Lowndes County had a much more significant impact.
The warning was issued at 7:53 p.m. for Lowndes County and was scheduled to expire at 8:20 p.m.
Severe weather also reached across the whole Southeast.
Tennessee had a reported eight confirmed tornadoes; however, in Tennessee seventeen people died as a result of the tornadoes and storms. The hardest hit area in Tennessee was Morgan County, where eight people died. The small town of Mossy Grove in Morgan County, still has some people who are unaccounted for as of Monday evening.
Alabama also reported several tornadoes. which resulted in deaths of 12 people across the state. Most of the deaths occurred in Fayette County.
Musgrove praised the work of the tri-county area emergency officials.

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Grant Holzhauer