By Alyssa Schnugg
News editor
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com
While Saturday morning’s storms made many Lafayette County residents nervous, the area escaped any serious damage, according to local emergency management officials.
The storms hit Oxford around 5 a.m. causing cell phones and emails to go off with alerts from flash flood warnings to tornado watches to severe thunderstorm warnings all in a matter of minutes.
Wind gusts hit up to about 30 mph and about 2 to 3 inches of rain fell in Lafayette County.
“We had minimal trees down,” said Lafayette County Emergency Management Coordinator Steve Quarles. “A couple of power poles were blown over on County Road 101, not far from CR 104, which was repaired quickly.”
In Oxford, EM Coordinator Jimmy Allgood said minor electrical outages inside the city limits, that affected about 80 homes, were repaired within an hour’s time by Oxford Utilities.
“We also had some street flooding from the heavy rainfall,” Allgood said. “I did not get any reports of water in any residences or businesses.”
Quarles said there were no reports of structures being damaged in the county.
There were no reported tornado sightings in Lafayette County, although the northern tip of the county was included briefly in a tornado warning issued by the National Weather Service that included Holly Springs.
More rain is expected to fall this week as a warm front moves into the area with the highest chance of showers and thundershowers tonight through Wednesday night.
The storm Saturday morning was part of a large system that produced high winds, tornadoes and unrelenting rain and killed at least 11 people in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma.
