Sean Washington walks through the living room of his home at 229 Meadowvale Drive this morning after a severe storm dumped more than 8 inches of rain on the city and sent a tree sliding down a 100-foot embankment into the kitchen of the home. Washington’s mother, Bettye Oliver, was at home at the time with her two grandsons in a bedroom about 5 feet from where the tree landed. No one was injured.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[04/07/03] A pair of storm cells that ripped through Warren County Sunday brought more than 8 inches of rain probably a record and drove residents out of their homes, closed schools and inundated the city’s Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Michael Thomas, 37, 409 Spring Ridge Drive, was just one member of many families forced out of their Hamilton Heights homes. The subdivision has long been flood-prone, but some homes that flooded Sunday had not received water before.

“I got my kids out first and carried them on my back,” Thomas said. “And then I went back and got my wife.”

The official rain total was 8.31 inches in the 24 hours ending at 7 a.m. today. One person was hurt in a storm-related wreck and damage estimates were being compiled across the region.

Thomas stayed near the neighborhood Sunday night to assist state, city, fire and county officials in the rescue of others. Many volunteers were pressed into service clearing water and fallen tree damages.

A test of local severe weather warning sirens had been scheduled for noon today, but the devices got plenty of use as the National Weather Service tracked tornado-like activity aloft about noon and again about 6:30 p.m. No tornadoes touched down in the area.

Though scattered showers and thunderstorms may continue this afternoon and tonight, no floods or tornadoes are expected, said Lynn Burse, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

“The front has stalled across the area and will not move east of Vicksburg until sometime tonight,” she said.

Schools in the area were closed with the exception of the Christian Center for Educational Excellence and All Saints’ Episcopal School.

“It wasn’t safe to put buses out on these roads,” said Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Donald Oakes. Many roads were blocked by trees and sloughed mud. Crews will likely be working for months to shore up roadsides that fell away under the heavy rain.

A 5,000-square-foot portion of the roof of the first-grade wing at Redwood Elementary School was destroyed by high winds in the first storm, resulting in water damage to three first-grade classrooms and a teachers’ lounge.

“We’re just thankful no one was there,” school board president Kay Aasand said.

Oakes said canopies adjacent to the wing and the roofs of portable classrooms were also damaged. Debris was blown across the campus.

“The property damage at Redwood Elementary School is the most significant that has been brought to my attention,” said Billy Riddle, an operations officer for Warren County Emergency Management Agency.

The board of trustees declared the situation an emergency and will not follow normal bidding guidelines for repair work. A timetable for repairs was not established, but an announcement on whether Redwood and other schools will be open Tuesday was expected this afternoon.

The city’s Waste Water Treatment Plant was flooded and did not have power as late as this morning, public works director for the city, Bubba Rainer, said.

“We are assessing the situation and dealing with it as best we can,” he said.

About 3 feet of water was standing in the plant off Rifle Range Road, which is the terminus of the city’s network of sewer pipes.

At Bovina, the Big Black River rose 29.6 feet in 24 hours and in the same amount of time, the Yazoo River at Yazoo City rose 10.9 feet, according to reports. Water inside the Steele Bayou Control Structure at the base of the Mississippi Delta rose 6.6 feet.

Power outages caused by lightning, fallen trees and mudslides continued to plague the area this morning.

Entergy customer service manager Cheryl Comans said at 2 this morning about 4,400 customers were without power and 2,000 customers’ electricity was still out. The company serves about 27,000 in Vicksburg and parts of Warren County.

About 800 customers of Yazoo Valley Electric Power Association, which serves about 1,500 residents in the northern part of Warren County, were without power Sunday and this morning due to eight downed main power poles, said Ken Smith, manager of general services. He said power is expected to be restored today.

Residents in the Hamilton Heights subdivision, Cairo Drive and Forest Hill Apartments were rescued from flooded homes by crews from the city, county, fire departments and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

Some residents fled to relatives’ homes and some were taken to the Halls Ferry Road police precinct as a temporary shelter.

Downed trees and flooded roads were reported in and around Old Jackson Road, Oak Ridge Road, Freetown Road, Grange Hall Road, Forest Hill Apartments, Indiana Avenue, Douglass Road, Culkin Road, Dana Road, Standard Hill Road and the Sky Farm Avenue area. Additionally, the bridge across Hatcher Bayou on Fisher Ferry Road was temporarily closed.

The injury was to the driver of an 18-wheeler on Interstate 20 just west of Bovina. The truck hit mud that flowed onto the road, then slid on its side down the highway.

Mike Brown of Brown & Brown Trucking in Redwood, who was at the scene this morning unloading the cargo, said the accident reportedly occurred just before midnight.

The driver, whose name was not released, was treated and released from River Region Medical Center, said Mississippi Highway Patrol Officer Herman Bouldin.

Percy Hall of Bell’s Towing Service said that workers from his company would remove the truck as soon as the cargo was unloaded.