A tornado that touched down around midnight Friday near Greenwood has damaged scores of homes and cars and put thousands without power, but no injuries or deaths have been reported, according to emergency management officials in Leflore and Carroll counties.
A second dangerous storm front, possibly worse than the first, was headed toward the Delta Saturday. Greenwood was under a tornado watch until 1 p.m.
Kendall Parks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said that tornadoes were likely, with wind gusts of up to 70 mph and hail up to 2 inches in diameter.
“Make sure you are not in any type of campers or anything like that,” Parks said.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that the storm system had resulted in at least 16 fatalities across the Mississippi Valley and the Deep South, including 10 deaths in Missouri, three in Arkansas and three in Texas. Missouri and Arkansas have also reported multiple injuries.
The worst of Friday night’s damage in Leflore County was in its southeast corner, around County Road 512, between U.S. 82 and Mississippi 430, more commonly known as Humphrey Highway.
Fred Randle, emergency management director for Leflore County, estimated that more than 100 homes and businesses were damaged, but he would have a better estimate Saturday in the daylight. Pleasant View Apartments and the mobile home complex Deer View Courts were both heavily damaged by the storm. Numerous vehicles also were damaged by fallen trees.
“We are regrouping this morning to get damage assessments,” he said Saturday.
“We spent the whole night clearing the roadways from trees.”
Among the damaged structures was the Leflore County home of Beth and Glen Stevens, located on County Road 166. Beth is the executive director of the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce, and Glen is the principal at Bankston Elementary School.
Beth posted to Facebook after the tornado passed that it “was NO JOKE. Been in the bathtub, came over our house. Water sucked out of sinks and toilets. House shaking. Our barn is gone. Most of it in the pool. Trees down. Debris everywhere. I’m scared to death. Please Lord keep us safe.”
Beth said in an interview Saturday morning that she was waked up around 11:30 p.m. by warning sirens. She got out of bed and woke up her husband, who had fallen asleep in a recliner in the home’s living room. Beth got into a bathtub in the house with their German shepherd, Sam, while Glen held the bathroom door shut. Beth recalled Glen saying, “This is not good.”
Everything got eerily quiet, she said, followed by a loud commotion. “When the whole house started shaking, I thought, ‘This is it. This is it.’”
Besides the destroyed barn, the house suffered major roof damage, and uprooted trees were everywhere, she said.
Jim Stallings lives with his wife, Sherry, next door to Stevens and said the roof of his barn was blown off. In addition to numerous downed trees, Jim Stallings has found damage to his fencing and siding of his home.
“I sat out on my deck watching (the storm),” he recalled on Saturday. “Wind picked up, and I told my wife to go in the closet. And you just hear stuff hitting the house. We just hung tight.”
Stallings said he’s been visiting other neighbors to help assess damage while Sherry is starting to file insurance claims.
“This other stuff can be replaced,” Stallings said he told Glen Stevens. “You’re not bleeding from the nose. You’re not hurt. We’ll make it another day.”
Cleveland Totten surveys the situation Saturday in his Orchard Drive neighborhood following Friday night's tornado. (By Kevin Edwards, Copyright 2025 Emmerich Newspapers, Inc.)
Just north of County Road 166, on Orchard Drive, Cleveland Totten was also surveying his neighborhood and helping his neighbors assess what has happened.
“Man, I heard that roar,” Totten remembered. “It was like a train.”
Totten said he and his son, Cleveland Jr., began receiving notifications on their phones to take cover.
“We’ve experienced many tornadoes out in the country. We’ve never experienced one since we’ve been over here in Greenwood,” Totten said. “It was awesome. But we’re saved. We’re blessed this morning. God was awesome to us. It was a big experience though.”
Power outages were reported throughout the area, with the tornado following a northeastern path as it crossed the line between Leflore and Carroll counties.
Greenwood Utilities reported that 850 customers were without electricity at the storm’s peak, and that about 460 would remain without power for at least most of Saturday. Approximately 10 double-circuit poles were down, and repairs would be slowed by additional storms, the utility company reported on Facebook.
Delta Electric said that at least 5,000 customers were without power Saturday morning in Leflore, Carroll, Montgomery and Grenada counties, and that at least 150 poles were down. “It’s probably going to take a multiday process,” General Manager Harold Pittman said of the restoration.
Ken Strachan, emergency management director in Carroll County, said that less than 10 structures were initially reported to have suffered damage, but he expected that number to rise as more information came in Saturday. He said road crews had been out all night clearing roads in the northern part of the county.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com, or Kevin Edwards at 662-581-7233 or kedwards@gwcommonwealth.com.
