EF3 Tornado — Forrest, Mississippi

2017-01-21 · near Bonhomie, Forrest, Mississippi

Event narrative

This tornado began along Purvis-Oloh Road, about 5 miles west northwest of Purvis. It tracked northeast across portions of Lamar County causing mainly tree damage, uprooting and snapping softwood and hardwood trees. It caused some minor to moderate structural damage as well. The tornado crossed Old Highway 11, continuing to cause mainly tree damage, although at least a few structures were also damaged. The tornado began to gain strength as it reached Slade Road, where some homes received roof damage. As the tornado crossed Sullivan Kilrain Road, additional homes received significant roof and structural damage, especially on Carter Circle and Tatum Camp Road. Comprehensive assessments from Lamar County emergency management officials count 26 homes in the county being destroyed or with major damage and 52 homes receiving minor damage. The tornado continued to gain strength as it crossed into Forrest County. There it struck a subdivision along Nellwood Drive, Lakeland Drive and Crestwood Drive and caused significant damage to many homes. Several homes received significant roof and structural damage. One home sustained significant damage and also was the site of one of the fatalities. As the tornado continued to track northeast, it caused extensive tree damage and powerline damage. It struck a church along Helveston Road, which suffered damage to the top floor. As the tornado approached William Carey College, it intensified to EF3 strength, causing damage to numerous buildings on campus. The tornado then affected a mobile home park, downing trees and causing damage to mobile homes. Here, two more fatalities occurred. It then caused structural damage to several homes, churches and businesses on James Street and Alcorn Road. Another fatality occurred on Alcorn Road, when a tree fell on a home. The tornado continued to track northeast, crossing the Leaf River and headed into Petal. Here the tornado got very wide and continued to cause EF2 type damage to businesses along Main Street and into the neighborhoods on the southern side of the city. Extensive tree damage occurred and countless homes had minor to major roof damage in the neighborhood south of Hillcrest Loop. As the tornado reached Sun Circle, it intensified to EF3 strength again and caused significant damage to a few homes as well as moderate damage to many homes in the neighborhood. Beyond the subdivision along Sun Circle, the tornado caused tree damage again before reaching Evelyn Gandy

Parkway. It caused structural damage to an AT&T store by lifting the roof of the strip mall. It caused additional roof damage to several homes and a church along the Parkway as well as along Springridge Road and Corinth Road. As the tornado tore across Shawnee Trail, it caused impressive tree damage, which included snapping and uprooting hardwood and softwood trees. As the tornado tracked just south of

HDR Lane, it took down two metal electrical transmission lines. The tornado then destroyed a house along Macedonia Road, as well as causing additional roof to other homes and taking down numerous trees. Additional impressive tree damage occurred along Old Richton Road and Tyroby Lane. The tornado continued to down trees as it

tracked across Old Richton Road into Perry County. Comprehensive assessments from Forrest County emergency management officials count 499 homes in the county being destroyed or with major damage and 632 homes receiving minor damage.

The tornado path length in just Lamar and Forrest counties was 24.2 miles, although the entire path of the tornado in total was 31.3 miles. Along the entire tornado path the total number of homes destroyed or receiving major damage is estimated to be 531 with the number of homes having minor damage estimated at 689. Maximum estimated winds were 145 mph. The maximum path width was 900 yards, which occurred in the Petal area of Forrest County. This tornado affected a large number of forested areas. Approximately 1570 forested acres were damaged, with 1453 acres being privately owned. In total, 4320 acres were damaged from this tornado. The total economic impact was $410,784 in Lamar, Forrest and Perry counties. 777 total acres were damaged in Lamar County, and 400 in Forrest.

Wider weather episode

Two rounds of severe weather impacted the ArkLaMiss region - one beginning shortly after midnight on the morning of January 21st and ending shortly before daybreak. The round of storms began during the evening hours on the 21st and ended just before midnight. During the early morning event, areas south of I-20 in Mississippi were impacted. Most notably, an EF-3 tornado tracked through Lamar and Forrest counties, killing four people in Hattiesburg and injuring over 50 others. In addition, damaging winds, large hail and flash flooding occurred in other areas across south Mississippi. The evening event impacted a larger proportion of the ArkLaMiss, and brought wind damage as well as large hail and a strong tornado.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.2738, -89.3478)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 676496. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.