The Commercial Dispatch eEdition 4-30-14

WEATHER

135th Year, No. 43

Kelsie Nicole GerhartFourth grade, New Hope

High 71 Low 46Mostly sunny

Full forecast on page 2A.

FIVE QUESTIONS1 Whose birthday do the people of Bermuda celebrate on the second Monday in June?2 Where in Beijing did Chinese stu-dents build a Goddess of Democracy in May 1989?3 How many strings do most guitars have?4 What is the common name for the fluid expelled from the body through the process of lacrimation?5 How many balls are normally racked in the triangle in pocket billiards?

Answers, 10B

INSIDEClassifieds 8BComics 7B

Obituaries 5AOpinions 6A

DISPATCH CUSTOMER SERVICE 328-2424 | NEWSROOM 328-2471

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CdispatCh.Com 50 NewsstaNd | 40 home deliverYwedNesdaY | april 30, 2014

CALENDAR

Thursday, May 1 Lowndes Day of Prayer: In conjunc-tion with the National Day of Prayer, the privately-funded Christian Community Organization invites citizens of Colum-bus and surrounding areas to join in an observance outside the Lowndes Coun-ty Courthouse at 502 Second Ave. N.

Friday and Saturday, May 2-3 Market Street Festival: Columbus annual festival kicks off May 2 at the Riverwalk with a free evening concert by Almost Famous of Memphis, Tenn. Saturday features arts and crafts vendors, live music and fun activities all day downtown. Look for more infor-mation soon at marketstreetfestival.com or contact Main Street Columbus, 662-328-6305.

PUBLIC MEETINGSMay 5: Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, Court-house, 9 a.m.May 5: Clay County Board of Supervisors, Courthouse, 9 a.m.May 5: Caledonia Board of Alderman, town hall at 6 p.m.May 8: Clay County Board of Supervisors, Courthouse, 9 a.m.May 9: Lowndes County School Board, Central Office, 11 a.m. May 12: Columbus Munic-ipal School Board, Central office, 6 p.m.May 15: Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, Court-house, 9 a.m.

LOCAL FOLKS

Izzy Paros is in fifth grade at Cook Elementary. She is the daughter of Leslie Stratzves.

Mary Alice Weeks/Dispatch StaffCasey Blair clears branches from Lonny and Wanda Nickoles home on Lacy Drive in New Hope on Monday morning following a bout of thunderstorms and tornadoes that tore through northeast Mississippi on Monday night.

BY SARAH [email protected]

The Columbus Police Department has an inter-im chief.

In a unanimous vote, the Columbus City Coun-

cil put Tony Carleton into the position during a specially called meeting Wednesday morning.

Former chief Selvain McQueen retired earlier this month after serving

as chief for less than three years. He earned $70,000 a year in the position.

Assistant Chief Joe Johnson has been in charge of the department since McQueens depar-ture.

Carleton, an 18-year law enforcement veteran,

has served as assis-tant chief with CPD since he was hired in November. Before his hiring, he served as chief of police in

Tupelo. He resigned from that position to come to Columbus.

He was earning $65,000 as assistant chief. He will earn $67,500 as interim.

A graduate of the Mis-sissippi Law Enforcement Training Academy, Car-leton has a bachelors de-

gree in public administra-tion with an emphasis in criminal justice from the University of Mississippi. He graduated from the FBI National Academy in November.

Mayor Robert Smith said he hopes the city will

AFTER THE STORM

Neighbors help neighbors in storms aftermathBY NATHAN [email protected]

Beverly Smith lives with her 86-year-old mother, Alice Nickoles, at the corner of Lacy and Hutcherson roads in east Lowndes County. On Tuesday afternoon, they were ap-proaching 24 hours without power, but were in good spirits.

Carolyn Nickoles was helping

Smith clean up the yard. Wearing gloves, they stacked limbs in a pile.

This is nothing compared to some folks, Carolyn Nickoles said, acknowledging the more extensive damage half a mile away near Pleas-ant Hill Road. Were blessed.

Approximately, 1,009 4-County Electric customers were still without power Tuesday after Monday after-noons severe weather hit particularly

hard in New Hope. 4-County commu-nications specialist Brad Barr said all of those are likely in Lowndes Coun-ty. Seventy-two people are working to restore power to those homes. It is expected for a majority of them to have power again this evening, Barr said.

Columbus Lowndes Emergency Management Agency Director Cindy Lawrence said about 100 homes county-wide received damage.

INSIDE SOUTH: Storms cut devastating path through the South, PAGE 3A. ALABAMA: Damage minimal in Lamar County, PAGE 4A. SLIMANTICS: East Columbus neighborhood rallies in storms aftermath, PAGE 6A. PARTIAL TO HOME: Rays ride out storm at Tabernacle Road home, PAGE 6A. LOUISVILLE: Search continues for missing boy; Louisville ER doctor clings to patient in terrifying tug-of- war, PAGE 8A. RACE TRACK: Destroyed race track will soon recover, manager vows, PAGE 9A. TUPELO: Noted Tupelo swimmer is lone fatality in Tusca-loosa, PAGE 2B.

Columbus City Council names Carleton as Interim ChiefWilliam Browning/Dispatch Staff

Rev. Robert Gavin, the pastor of

Springfield M.B. Church on Highway 45 South,

on Tuesday looks at

what is left of the church

following Mondays

storms. Mary Gavin,

his wife, came with him to see

the damage.

Tornado levels Lowndes Co. churchBY WILLIAM [email protected]

A tornado completely destroyed Springfield M.B. Church on Monday.

It had stood for nearly 150 years in a field on the east side of Highway 45 South, down toward Macon. A small, old cemetery is be-hind it. A large limb that had snapped off of a nearby oak

tree laid through the head-stones.

Where the church once was is now only rubble. Ev-erything seems to have fall-en toward the north when the storm came through. Bricks and paneling are strewn about.

The only thing left en-tirely intact by the tornados winds is a wooden cross adorned with a purple sash

near where the front en-trance once stood.

The Rev. Robert Gavin has served as pastor for about three years. Its a small con-gregation.

Gavin learned about the destruction not long after it happened around 6 p.m. Mon-day. A church trustee knows a Lowndes County deputy, who happened to pass by and saw what had happened, and the word spread.

Pastor: The church is flat

See CHURCH, 10A

Carleton

See COLUMBUS, 9A

EMA: 12 mobile homes destroyed, 100 damaged

Has served as assistant chief since Nov.

See CARLETON, 9A

The DispaTch www.cdispatch.com2A WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2014

DID YOU HEAR?

CONTACTING THE DISPATCH

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Five-Day forecast for the Golden Triangle

Almanac Data National Weather

Lake Levels

River Stages

Sun and MoonSolunar table

Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, i-ice, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow

Yesterday 7 a.m. 24-hr.Lake Capacity yest. change

The solunar period schedule allows planning days so you will be fishing in good territory or hunting in good cover during those times.

Temperature

Precipitation

Tombigbee

Yesterday Flood 7 a.m. 24-hr.River stage yest. change

Columbus Tuesday

High/low ..................................... 82/62Normal high/low ......................... 80/54Record high ............................ 89 (1957)Record low .............................. 40 (1965)

Tuesday ........................................... 0.02"Month to date ................................. 8.56"Normal month to date ...................... 4.65"Year to date .................................. 20.83"Normal year to date ....................... 20.40"

Thursday Friday

Atlanta 70 50 pc 71 50 pcBoston 67 51 r 65 49 pcChicago 51 42 r 57 41 cDallas 73 48 pc 80 53 sHonolulu 83 70 pc 84 72 pcJacksonville 84 64 t 73 54 rMemphis 67 48 pc 70 53 pc

69

45

Thursday

Partly sunny

71

46

Friday

Intervals of clouds and sun

77

51

Saturday

Mostly sunny and pleasant

85

56

Sunday

Nice with plenty of sunshine

Aberdeen Dam 188' 168.80' +0.30'Stennis Dam 166' 138.51' +0.30'Bevill Dam 136' 136.44' -0.02'

Amory 20' 11.86' -0.59'Bigbee 14' 5.26' -2.25'Columbus 15' 7.09' +0.73'Fulton 20' 15.22' +6.96'Tupelo 21' 4.00' +2.80'

New

May 28

Last

May 21

Full

May 14

First

May 6

Sunrise ..... 6:06 a.m.Sunset ...... 7:36 p.m.Moonrise ... 7:09 a.m.Moonset .... 9:13 p.m.

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. 2014

Major ..... 2:09 a.m.Minor ..... 8:22 a.m.Major ..... 2:35 p.m.Minor ..... 8:48 p.m.

Major ..... 3:05 a.m.Minor ..... 9:18 a.m.Major ..... 3:31 p.m.Minor ..... 9:43 p.m.

ThursdayWednesday

Thursday Friday

Nashville 66 44 pc 67 47 cOrlando 89 70 t 85 68 tPhiladelphia 76 53 pc 69 48 pcPhoenix 90 68 s 93 72 sRaleigh 78 54 t 69 50 pcSalt Lake City 68 49 s 76 56 sSeattle 87 51 s 74 49 pc

Tonight

Mainly clear

44

Wednesday

Idol winner to help reopen Washington Monument

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON American Idol winner Candice Glover will help reopen the Washington Monument, which has been closed since a 2011 earthquake.

Organizers say the R&B singer will join the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, U.S. Navy Band and boy and girl choris-ters of the Washington National Cathedral Choir for the May 12 re-opening ceremony. Glover will sing America, the Beautiful. The Today shows Al Ro-

ker will host the event.Interior Secretary Sal-

ly Jewell, National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis and philanthropist David Rubenstein will help celebrate. Rubenstein do-nated $7.5 million to cover half the restoration cost.

The 130-year-old me-morial has been closed since a 5.8-magnitude earthquake caused dam-age in August 2011. Work-ers have repaired more than 150 cracks in the 555-foot obelisk.

Normally the monu-ment draws about 700,000 visitors a year.

AP Photo/Susan Walsh, FileThis 2013 file photo shows American Idol 2013 winner Candice Glover on Capitol Hill in Washington. Glover from American Idol will help reopen the Washington Monument, which has been closed since a 2011 earth-quake.

Scene&Seen RELAY FOR LIFEWeather was great for the Lowndes County Relay for Life event for the American Cancer Society April 25 at Colum-bus High School.

Pamela McKinney, Mary Wicks, Layne and Tommy Hall

Brenda Ferguson, Mary Coleman, Pamela Colvin, Cassandra Dent

Marie, Tommy and Priscilla Coggin, Ron, Jennifer and Sammie St. John

Eliza Moore, Kayla, Lloyd, Makayla and Terrill Bell, Eunice Harrison

Perry Watkins, Bontre McCray, Chris Craddieth Tim Denning, Tricia Cox, Rose and Lloyd Pate

No matter who You are...What Youve done, or whatYou failed to do...You are accepted!A child of Almighty God!

COME! Walk withUS

on this journey called life.

Covenant United Methodist Church31st Avenue, Columbus Behind K-Mart

Worship: Sunday 11am1st & 3rd Sunday 6pm at Beans & Cream

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Site closed since 2011 earthquake

ONLINE SUBSCRIPTIONSFor less than $1 per month, print subscribers can get unlimited access to story comments, extra photos, newspaper archives and much more with an online subscription. Nonsubscribers can purchase online access for less than $8 per month. Go to www.cdispatch.com/subscribe

MSU SPORTS BLOGVisit The Dispatch MSU Sports Blog for breaking

Bulldog news: www.cdispatch.com/msusports@WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2014 3A

I n S p i n e S u r g e r y

NMMCs neurosurgeons pictured (left to right): R. Hunt Bobo, M.D., Elbert White, IV, M.D., FACS, Walter Eckman, M.D., Carl Bevering, III, M.D., Louis Rosa, III, M.D., FACS

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Featuring:Geraldine & Ricky, Paid in Full and

Mississippi State University Jazz Band

Love Offering will be collected.Call the church office for more information at 662-328-2924. Th

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May 1 at

BY ADRIAN SAINZ AND JEFF AMYThe Associated Press

LOUISVILLE Ruth Bennett died clutching the last child left at her day care center as a tor-nado wiped the building off its foundation. A fire-fighter who came upon the body gently pulled the toddler from her arms.

It makes you just take a breath now, said next-door neighbor Ken-neth Billingsley, who witnessed the scene at what was left of Ruths Child Care Center in this logging town of 6,600. It makes you pay attention to life.

Bennett, 53, was among at least 35 people killed in a two-day outbreak of twisters and other violent weather that pulverized homes from the Midwest to the Deep South. The child, whose name was not released, was alive when she was pulled from Bennetts arms and was taken to a hospital. Her condition was not known.

As crews in Mississippi and Alabama turned from search-and-rescue efforts to cleanup, forecasters began to downplay their initially dire predictions of a third round of deadly twisters Tuesday. Mete-orologists said the storm system had weakened substantially by evening, although some tornado watches and warnings were still in effect for iso-lated areas.

In North Carolina, the National Weather Service reported tornado touch-downs in five counties Tuesday, but the twist-ers caused only moder-ate structural damage to homes and toppled some trees. Two cities in the state reported extensive flooding from the storm system. No injuries were reported.

One of the hardest-hit areas in Monday eve-nings barrage of twisters was Tupelo, where a gas station looked as if it had been stepped on by a gi-ant.

Francis Gonzalez, who also owns a convenience store and Mexican restau-rant attached to the ser-vice station, took cover with her three children and two employees in the stores cooler as the roof over the gas pumps was reduced to aluminum shards.

My Lord, how can all this happen in just one second? she said in Span-ish.

On Tuesday, the growl of chain saws cut through the otherwise still, hazy morning in Tupelo. Mas-sive oak trees, knocked over like toys, blocked roads. Neighbors helped one another cut away limbs.

This does not even look like a place that Im familiar with right now, said Pam Montgomery, walking her dog in her neighborhood. You look

down some of the streets, and it doesnt even look like there is a street.

By the governments preliminary count, 11 tornadoes including one that killed 15 people in Arkansas struck the nations midsection on Sunday, and at least 25 ravaged the South on Monday, the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center said.

Among those killed was 21-year-old University of Alabama swimmer and deans list student John Servati, who was taking shelter in the basement of a Tuscaloosa home when a retaining wall collapsed on him.

His death and that of at least two others in

Alabama came the day after the third anniversa-ry of an outbreak of more than 60 tornadoes that killed more than 250 peo-ple across the state.

In Kimberly, Ala., north of Birmingham, the firehouse was among the buildings heavily dam-aged.

Four firefighters suf-fered little more than cuts and scrapes, but the bays over the fire trucks were destroyed, and the vehicles were covered with red bricks, concrete blocks and pieces of the roof.

The trucks were es-sentially trapped, so the town had to rely on near-by communities for emer-gency help.

Forecasters downplay 3rd-day dire predictionsIt makes you pay attention to life


JACKSON A former police chief in Mississip-pi has been sentenced to five years in federal pris-on for conspiring to de-mand money and property from people in exchange for dropping criminal charges.

Former Mendenhall Po-

lice Chief Donald Bruce Barlow pleaded guilty in to one count in federal court in January. Barlow, 50, had been charged with 17 counts, including witness intimidation.

He also was sentenced Tuesday to three years supervised release. Pros-ecutors say restitution will be determined at a July 10

hearing.Prosecu-

tors say Bar-low some-times made people sign over their vehicles in e x c h a n g e for him dropping charges and also demanded cash payments, in one case $4,500.

Prosecutors say Barlow tried to cover up his deal-ings when he learned of the federal investigation.

Former Mississippi police chief sentencedFive year sentence for 17 counts, including witness intimidation

Barlow


JACKSON The Southern Companies says the expected startup date of its coal gas-fired power plant in Kemper County is being pushed back to the first half of 2015.

In a regulatory filing Tuesday with the Securi-

ties and Exchange Com-mission, the company also says the plants cost is ex-pected to rise by $196 mil-lion to a total of about $5.4 billion.

The Atlanta-based com-pany says it will take a pre-tax charge of $380 million $235 million after taxes against its income for

the first quarter of 2014.A spokesman for South-

ern-affiliate Mississippi Power Company says the utility will not seek to re-cover the increased costs from ratepayers.

Earlier this month the company blamed poor weather, unexpected turn-over of construction em-ployees and installation inefficiencies for contrib-uting to extra costs.

Kemper power plant will cost moreStart-up delayed until 2015 also

BY SETH BORENSTEINAP Science Writer

W A S H -I N G T O N Weather from nearly all parts of the country combined to brew this weeks killer tor-nadoes.

To get tornadoes especially the big deadly kind everything has to come together in just the right way and it hadnt been doing that lately, said meteorologist Greg Carbin at the Storm Pre-diction Center in Norman, Okla.

Until the weekend, there had been relatively few significant twisters this year across the Unit-ed States just 20 and no deaths.

But the conditions were right on Sunday in the cen-tral U.S.

Dry, cool air swooped off Californias Sierra Madre and southern Rocky mountains. That sat on top warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, creating thunderstorms. And the jet stream brought in wind shear, which helps provide rotation.

Cook that all with day-time heating and it makes a tornado outbreak, mete-

orologists say.What makes this out-

break unusual is that it is essentially stalled, Carbin said. The slow-moving jet stream plunging from the Northwest is keeping a large, high-pressure sys-tem off the East Coast. And thats preventing the tornado-prone weather from moving east and weakening.

That could mean more storms in across the South, maybe into Wednesday.

In the past few decades, the U.S. has averaged about 1,250 tornadoes a year. Last year, which also had a slow start, ended with 908 tornadoes that killed 55 people.

You expect to see one or two outbreaks like this each spring and certainly we were due, said Jeff Masters, meteorology

director of the private Weather Underground.

Right mix of conditions brewed tornado outbreakWeather from nearly all parts of the country combined to create this weeks killer tornadoes

ONLINE: Storm Prediction Center: spc.noaa.gov/

Mary Alice Weeks/Dispatch StaffDamaged vehicles are seen near the remains of East Main Automotive on Main Street in Louisville on Tuesday morning after an EF-4 tornado tore through Winston County on Monday night.


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WEST ALABAMA NEWS

BY DAVID MILLERSpecial to The Dispatch

LAMAR COUNTY, Ala. One home was damaged and 12 roads are currently impassable after heavy rain and strong winds pound-ed Lamar County Monday and Tuesday nights.

A tree was uprooted and fell onto a house, but the owner was not home, Johnny Bigham, direc-tor of emergency management for

the county, said. Close to 70 trees or large branches were blocking roads as of Monday might, partic-ularly on County Road 49, north of Crossville, and along Highway 96, where most of the heavy rains and wind occurred, Bigham said. And though many have been cleared, 12 roads, mostly little-used dirt roads will take another two or three days to clear, Bigham said.

We dont have any major thor-oughfares or bus routes (among

the roads currently impassable), Bigham added. Right now, we have six west of Vernon that are closed and the rest around Millport.

Volunteer fire firefighters from across the county were on standby Tuesday night.

Bigham said he was concerned about flooding after the storm sys-tem of April 27, 2011, washed out culverts in the county, but as of Tuesday evening he didnt think flooding would be a problem.

Storm damage limited in Lamar Co.


BIRMINGHAM The Alabama Emergency Management Agency re-ported three deaths from strong storms and possi-ble tornadoes that swept through the state Monday night and early Tuesday.

Limestone County Coroner Mike West says 60-year-old Dorthy Jean Hollis and her 33-year-old son, Carlton Earl Hollis, were killed about 5:15 p.m. Monday when their mobile home was destroyed in the Coxey

community 10 miles west of Athens on U.S. 72.

Neighbors told report-ers that the two were en-couraged to go to a shelter at the Billy Barbs mobile home park, but declined.

A spokeswoman at Athens-Limestone Hos-pital said 17 people were treated at the hospital for storm injuries and two

were admitted.Tuscaloosa officials

said University of Ala-bama swimmer John Ser-vati, 21, of Tupelo, Miss., was taking shelter in the basement of a home when a retaining wall collapsed about 10:30 p.m. Monday. He was pronounced dead at DCH Regional Medical Center.

3 killed in Alabama storms, many without powerUniversity of Alabama swimmer dies


MONTGOMERY An Auburn man accused of organizing high-stakes dog fights in Alabama is scheduled in federal court

to enter a guilty plea.Donnie Anderson filed

paperwork saying he wants to plead guilty. A federal judge has sched-uled a hearing this after-

noon in Montgomery.Anderson was indicted

last year on charges ac-cusing him of organizing fights in Macon and Lee counties where people bet thousands per dog. Fed-eral investigators seized 126 dogs from his prop-erty.

Another man charged

in the case, Ricky Van Le of Biloxi, has also filed pa-perwork saying he wants to enter a guilty plea Wednesday. Hes accused of participating in a dog fight in Alabama.

Their pleas would bring the number of guilty pleas in the case to nine.

2 more to plead guilty to dog fighting in Ala.Auburn organizers plea brings number of guilty pleas to nine

Senate ready to sink effort to boost minimum wage

BY ALAN FRAMThe Associated Press

WASHINGTON Hemmed in by solid Repub-lican opposition, the Senate seems ready to hand a fresh defeat to President Barack Obama by blocking an elec-tion-year bill increasing the federal minimum wage.

Democrats, aware that the measure faces all but certain rejection today in the chamber they control, plan to use the vote to but-tress their campaign theme that the GOP is unwilling to protect financially strug-gling families.

Americans understand fairness, and they know its unfair for minimum-wage workers to put in a full days work, a full months work, a full years work, and still live in poverty, the measures sponsor, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said Tuesday.

Harkins bill, an Obama priority, would gradually raise the $7.25 hourly min-imum to $10.10 over 30 months and then provide automatic annual increas-es to account for inflation. Democrats argue that if fully phased in by 2016, it would push a family of three above the federal poverty line a level such earners have not surpassed since 1979.

They also say the mini-mum wages buying power has fallen. It reached its peak value in 1968, when it was $1.60 hourly but was worth $10.86 in todays dol-lars.

Republicans say the Democratic proposal would be too expensive for employers and cost jobs. As ammunition, they cite a February study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that estimat-ed the increase to $10.10 could cost about 500,000 jobs but also envisioned higher income for 16.5 mil-lion low-earning people.

Citing those job loss figures, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday, When it comes to so many of their proposals, Washington Democrats appear to pri-oritize the desires of the far left over the needs of the middle class.

Democrats needed 60

votes today to begin Sen-ate debate. To prevail, they would need support from at least six Republicans, which seemed beyond reach.

I cant give you a num-ber, but Im confident Democrats wont suc-ceed, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, his partys vote-counter, said after

GOP senators met Tues-day.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the few Re-publicans considered po-tentially willing to let de-bate begin, said Tuesday she expected to oppose the legislation, saying it would hurt companies.

Bill would gradually raise the $7.25 hourly minimum to $10.10 over 30 months and then provide automatic annual increases to account for inflation

The DispaTch www.cdispatch.com WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2014 5A

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Dora FrommServices:

Monday, May 5 10 AMMemorial Gardens Cemetery

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Lori KeslerVisitation:

Saturday, May 3 5-7 PMGunter and Peel Funeral Home

Services:Sunday, May 4 2 PM

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Irene PoundersEunice Irene Pounders, 91, of Caledonia,

MS passed away Tuesday, April 29, 2014 at her residence.

Visitation will be Thursday, May 1, 2014 from 11:00 am 1:00 pm at Lowndes Funeral Home, Columbus, MS. A funeral service will follow at 1:00 pm in the Chapel with Bro. Byron Harris, Bro. Jerry Pounders, Jr. and Bro. Don Hardin officiating. Interment will be at McDuffie Cemetery in Hamilton, AL with Lowndes Funeral Home directing.

Mrs. Pounders was born on July 4, 1922 in Fayette, Alabama to the late William Monroe and Jessie Mae Belk Shepherd. She was a member of Zion Assembly Church of God and worked as an Inspector at both Caledonia and Coy Manufacturing for over 37 years. Mrs. Pounders was a good mother and grandmother. She loved flowers, loved to pick butterbeans and loved to go to church. In addition to her parents she is preceded in death by her husband-Quinton QR Pounders and sons-Norman Doyle Moochie Pounders and Roger Lee Pounders.

Mrs. Pounders is survived by daughters- Elaine (Dewitt) Ray, Steens, MS, Helen (Jerry) Brackin, Brenda (Bill) Farley, Anna Mae Tofsrud all of Caledonia, MS; sons-Bobby (Cathy) Pounders, Kenneth (Diane) Pounders, Junior (Sue) Pounders, Cecil (Donna) Pounders, Jerry (Judy) Pounders, Warren Pounders all of Caledonia, MS and Harold (Debbie) Pounders, Columbus, MS; 44 grandchildren; 66 great-grandchildren; 9 great-great-grandchildren and a brother-Clay Shepherd.

Pallbearers will be Lance Brackin, Johnny Farley, Ashley Pounders, Calvin Ray, Sam Pounders, Brian Pounders, Jacob Pounders, Cody Pounders, Jason Pounders, Josh Pounders, Gunner Wilson and Derrick McBride.

Honorary Pallbearers will be Ladies of Walt Willis Plaza, Walt Willis, Doc Perkins, Tommy Clegg, Dr. Woodard, Dr. Stennet, Staff of Camilla Hospice and Staff of Mississippi Home Health.

Memorials may be made to Eunice Irene Pounders Memorial Fund, c/o Lowndes Funeral Home, 1131 N. Lehmberg Rd., Columbus, MS 39702.

AREA OBITUARIESCOMMERCIAL DISPATCH OBITUARY POLICYObituaries with basic informa-tion including visitation and service times, are provided free of charge. Extended obituaries with a photograph, detailed biographical informa-tion and other details families may wish to include, are available for a fee. Obituaries must be submitted through funeral homes unless the deceaseds body has been donated to science. If the de-ceaseds body was donated to science, the family must provide official proof of death. Please submit all obituaries on the form provided by The Commercial Dispatch. Free notices must be submitted to the newspaper no later than 3 p.m. the day prior for publication Tuesday through Friday; no later than 4 p.m. Saturday for the Sunday edi-tion; and no later than 7:30 a.m. for the Monday edition. Incomplete notices must be received no later than 7:30 a.m. for the Monday through Friday editions. Paid notices must be finalized by 3 p.m. for inclusion the next day Monday through Thursday; and on Friday by 3 p.m. for Sunday and Monday publica-tion. For more information, call 662-328-2471.

Patricia SmithCOLUMBUS Pa-

tricia Ann Smith, 62, died April 29, 2014, at Baptist Memorial Hos-pital-Golden Triangle.

Carters Funeral Services of Columbus is entrusted with the arrangements.

Mrs. Smith was born May 19, 1951, in Columbus to the late Mary Alice Edwards. She was formerly employed as a logistics officer for the Depart-ment of Defense.

In addition to her mother, she was pre-ceded in death by her siblings, Annie Lorene Edwards and Jesse Edwards.

She is survived by her son, John Smith III of Orlando, Fla.; siblings, Valarie Rich-ardson, Carol Lyne Edwards and James Edwards, all of Colum-bus, Fred Edwards of St. Louis; and two grandchildren.

Willie GibsonSTARKVILLE

Willie D. Son Dee Gibson, 77, died April 24, 2014.

Services are Thurs-day at noon at West Memorial Funeral Home Chapel in Starkville with the Rev. Dr. Charlie F. Barnes Sr. officiating. Burial will follow at Mt. Peiler Cemetery in Starkville. Visitation is today from 1-6 p.m. at the funeral home.

He is survived by his sisters, Callie M. Gibson and Louise Page; brothers, Archie L. Gibson and Jim Gibson.

Benji LivingstonCOLUMBUS

Benjiman Benji Alan Livingston, 37, died April 26, 2014, at UAB Hospital in Birming-ham.

Services are Thurs-day at 2 p.m. at Chan-dler Funeral Home with Tony Lawrence officiating. Burial will follow in Bethel Church Cemetery in Vernon, Ala. Visitation is today from 5-8 p.m. at the funeral home.

Mr. Livingston was born Oct. 11, 1976, in Homewood, Ala.,

to Patsy Buster and Ricky Livingston. He was formerly employed as an office manager and foreman for Nick-oles Electrical.

He was preceded in death by his brother, Alan Warren Living-ston.

In addition to his parents, he is survived by his wife, Brenda Livingston; and sister, Stacy Turk of Tuscalo-osa, Ala.

Pallbearers are Mike Nichols, Chris Chain, Charlie Grego-ry, Bill Tomason, Neal Johnson and Jeremy Gullett.

Hazel DahlemABERDEEN Ha-

zel Atkins Dahlem, 81, died April 29, 2014, at Pioneer Community Hospital in Aberdeen.

Services are Thurs-day at 11 a.m. at Tis-dale-Lann Memorial Funeral Home Chapel in Aberdeen with Robert Earl Fowlkes officiating. Burial will follow at Lebanon Cemetery. Visitation is Wednesday from 4-7 p.m. at the funeral home in Aberdeen.

Ms. Dahlem was born Aug. 21, 1932, in Monroe County to the late William Lloyd Atkins and Madge Byrd Atkins. She was a graduate of Green-wood Springs School and was formerly the owner of Dahlem Sales and Services.

In addition to her parents, she was pre-ceded in death by sis-ters, Christine Randle and Betty Jane Jones; brothers, Gayle, John, James, Sam Grady and Bobby Lloyd Atkins.

She is survived by her daughter, Judy Cox of Aberdeen; sons, Mike Dahlem of Tupe-lo, Donald Dahlem of Aberdeen and Ronald Dahlem of Tupelo; sister, Lucille West of Aberdeen; three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Beatrice WhiteWEST POINT

Beatrice Brown White, 78, died April 28, 2014, at Darlington Oaks in Verona.

Graveside services are today at 11 a.m. at Hebron Cemetery with the Rev. Mike Smith officiating. Robinson Funeral Home in West Point is in charge of arrangements.

Ms. White was born June 4, 1935, in Phe-ba and was formerly employed as a child caregiver. She was a member of Trinity Baptist Church and the VFW Ladies Auxiliary.

She is survived by her sons, Bob Brown and John Brown, both of West Point; daugh-ters, Connie Murray of Montpelier and Jo Ha-zlewood of West Point; sisters, Arnell Smith of Becker and Lena Mae Naron of Houston; nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchil-dren.

Pallbearers are Mike Murray, Josh Hazelwood, Jon Luke Hazelwood, Robbie Brown, Allen Brown and Tyler Brown.

Memorials may be made to Darlington

Oaks, 107 Skeet Drive, Verona, MS 38879.

Alyssa HarrisCALEDONIA

Alyssa Marie Macken-zie Harris, died away Wednesday, April 23, 2014, at her residence.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Lown-des Funeral Home.

Bobby BrumfieldLAUREL Bobby

Ray Brumfield, 75, died April 18, 2014, in Dallas.

Services are Mon-day at 2:00 p.m. at the Mississippi Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Newton. New Haven Memorial Funeral Home entrusted with arrangements.

L.J. LittleCOLUMBUS L.J.

Little, 54, died April 29, 2014, at Baptist Me-morial Hospital-Gold-en Triangle.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Carters Funeral Services.

Kelly RobinsonVERNON, Ala.

Kelly Ray Robinson, 65, died April 28, 2014, at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Ala.

Services are today at 3 p.m. at Full Gos-pel Worship Center in Vernon with James Godsey officiating. Vis-itation is today from 1 p.m. until service time at the church. Otts Funeral Home is in charge of arrange-ments.

Mr. Robinson was born June 28, 1948, in Lamar County, Ala., to the late May and Avis Leora Merchant Robinson. He attended Sulligent High School

and was formerly em-ployed as a truck driv-er. He was a member of Full Gospel Worship Center.

In addition to his parents, he was pre-ceded in death by his wife, Brenda Murphy Robinson; daughter, Jessica Irvin; and son, Donnie Robinson; and stepdaughter, Angela Rena Kelly.

He is survived by his wife, Rena Robin-son of Vernon; daugh-ters, Jenny Turner of Sulligent, Ala., Sonya Turner and Amanda Johnson, both of Ver-non; stepdaughters, Michele Griffin of Caledonia and Morgan Hartley of Vernon; stepson, Scott Kelly of Millport, Ala.; broth-

er, Odie Robinson of Sulligent; sisters, Lessie Holliday, Viola Lowe, Dean Rhudy

and Billie Joyce Clif-ton, all of Sulligent; 20 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Send in your church event!email [email protected]

Subject: Religious brief

6A WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2014

OpinionBIRNEY IMES SR. Editor/Publisher 1922-1947BIRNEY IMES JR. Editor/Publisher 1947-2003BIRNEY IMES III Editor/Publisher

PETER IMES General ManagerSLIM SMITH Managing EditorBETH PROFFITT Advertising DirectorMICHAEL FLOYD Circulation/Production ManagerDispatchthe

PARTIAL TO HOME

By 10 oclock Tuesday morn-ing Bobby Ray had almost finished picking up storm debris in his yard on Tabernacle Road when neighbor Ricky Ward showed up. The two are old friends, their friendship rooted in their shared passion for dirt-track racing.

Ward, a master mechanic, helps his next-door neighbor, race promoter Johnny Stokes, put on races and Ray works pit crew and serves as head cheer-leader for his son, Lee, who is a dirt-track driver.

Naturally, the topic of the day was Monday nights storm. Ray and his wife Martha were among 11 who took refuge in their above-ground storm shel-ter behind their house, a space about the size of a spacious broom closet.

Four of them were small children, Ray explained.Ward, for his part, took cover at the home of his neigh-

bor, Stokes. Johnny and Barbara Stokes brick ranch-style house is built into the side of a hill.

The men said two funnels passed through the area about 20 minutes apart.

It sounded like thunder that never stopped, Ward said.

When Ward commented on the sound at the time, his friend Stokes said, That aint thunder, thats it!

Wards wife Tamie refused to leave their trailer. When the straight-line winds devastated the county in February of 2001, Tamie got in a closet with a Bible and the familys dachshund. There she rode out the storm reading aloud.

The Lords blessed this house, she told Ward when time came to take cover, and I aint leaving.

I couldnt make her leave, Ward said. So I got Max (the dachshund) and went to Johnnys.

When I came back to the trailer, she said, I told you.

When conversation waned, Ward headed up to Rays shop, where he spends a lot of his spare time tinkering with cars. Ray, who had been cruising his property in a Kawasaki Mule picking up storm debris in the com-pany of his constant companion, Molly, a small, light-haired dog of indeterminate linage, took a visitor to his backyard to meet his wife Martha and tour their storm shelter.

It was all right, Martha said of the experience.As the storm was threatening, a neighbor with three

children stopped by and asked if they could get in the Rays shelter, thus the crowd.

The Rays have lived at this bend in the road since 1965. They share their large well-cared-for lot with the home of their son, his wife Christi and their granddaugh-ter Rylee. The Rays were lucky, other than limbs in their yard and one out-of-the-way tree snapped in two, their compound received little damage. The buckeyes growing in their backyard still had their red blooms.

The storm upended huge trees many of them old oaks all along Tabernacle and Lee Stokes roads, how-ever. A forester told Ray the already waterlogged ground made the trees more susceptible to blowing over.

By mid-day Tuesday, families men, women and children could be seen all along those thoroughfares, cutting trees, dragging limbs and stacking wood. There will be no firewood shortage in these parts this winter.

People appeared to be in good spirits, buoyed by the novelty of the situation, the shared sense of purpose and the simple fact there had been no injury or loss of life.

As I passed a house with its roof caved in at the inter-section of Lee-Stokes and Lacy roads, four young boys had just retrieved from a pile of debris four fishing rods and reels that looked to be in perfect condition. The boys, all grins, waved the rods in the air like swords.

Birney Imes is the publisher of The Dispatch. Email him at [email protected].

SLIMANTICS

A couple of miles down Lee-Stokes Road, where Pleasant Hill Baptist Church sits on a hill above a cluster of modest brick homes where Lacy Road runs into Pleasant Hill Road, church pastor Bill Hurt wearily tended his flock, scattered but unharmed after a pair of Monday tornadoes plowed through East Columbus.

The flock is safe, the shepherd is tired, Hurt said Tuesday afternoon, as he slumped wearily into the seat of an ATV parked in the debris-riddled yard of the churchs minister of music. It was 2 in the afternoon, and Hurt had been helped the folks in the little neighborhood most of whom are his congregants clean up.

He was hardly a gang of one, though. Men, women and children of all ages swarmed around the handful of houses that had received the most damage. A crew dispatched by the Mississippi Baptist Convention Disaster Relief team, operating from a mobile trailer near the road in front of the church, passed out equip-ment. The crew came at Hurts request. Other-wise, it was neighbor helping neighbor.

The good thing about life in a rural area such as this is that almost everybody has the kind of stuff you need in this situations chainsaws, ATVs, generators.

But not everybody has a massive excavator, which is what made Jerry Nickoles, who lives nearby, a most prominent person among the little swarm of do-gooders.

Nickoles, who owns Jerry Nickoles Dirt Con-struction, was giving directions on the ground as one of his employers operated the enormous machinery. By 1:30 p.m., the excavator was making quick work of a massive oak that had fallen in the storm, snapping off a large pine tree before descending with a sickening crash onto the southwest corner of Lonny Nickoles house.

The two Nickoles are distantly related, if related at all. Disasters seem to make close relations of even strangers, though, and Lonny Nickoles watched appreciatively as the excava-tor pulled the oaks car-sized root-ball from the earth, dumped it on the pile of debris near the road, then pushed the rich brown earth over the cavernous hole and smoothed it over with the tracks of the excavator.

Man, Lonny said, smiling. When I got here this morning, I was thinking, how in the world am I gonna fix this? I got my chainsaw, climbed up on the roof and started cutting the smaller limbs on the house. Then, people start-ed showing up.

James Blair... Nickoles said, choking up and pausing for a couple of seconds as he fought to keep his composure. James Blair, he was the first to come. We are old friends, used to work together. He was the first one to show up. It was just me and him, then....Well, just look.

A handful of people, some he didnt know, were busy turning the debris from the big oak and pine tree into firewood.

Its something, huh? Nickoles said.Next door, Sybil Prather was trying to hold

down a blue tarp as her husband and other fam-ily members tried to secure it a portion of the house missing a roof, some of which dangled high above them in the limbs of a big oak that marks the boundary between her house on Lonny Nickoles house.

The damage was not done by a falling tree, however.

The wind just came and picked up it, Prather said. We were all in the bathroom, six of us, when it hit. After a little while, my son peeked out and said, mom, the roof is gone.

The storm jerked out the utility box from the homes exterior. It also swept an old storage building behind the house onto Nickoles prop-erty, replacing it with Nickoles trampoline.

Im not sure who got the best of the deal, Prather said. We were going to replace the building anyway, my son said, but I said, yeah, but this isnt what we had in mind.

By 2 oclock, the excavator had left Nickoles house and moved across the street to the min-ister of musics house, where another large oak had smashed the roof on the back half of the house and punched through a big bay window.

The family, along with Pastor Hurt and sev-eral other volunteers, had been cutting limbs and dragging debris to a big pile near the road for hours. The excavator would do in an hour what all those folks could not do in a week.

Normally, Jerry Nickoles charges $125 per hour for this kind of work.

He wasnt making any money Tuesday, though.

Im a deacon at the church. I go to church with most of these people and know pretty much everybody else, Jerry Nickoles said. This is what you do. Im happy I can help.

The scene in this little corner of east Colum-bus is both remarkable and typical remark-able in the sense that a small army of people simply turned out to help each other, typical in the sense that this scene played out every-where along the tornados path.

The tornado hit early in the evening Mon-day, but neither Lonny Nickoles or Sybil Prath-er said they got much sleep Monday night. It may have been a moments terror, but it was a long, sleepless night of worrying how they would manage to recover.

You almost feel like giving up, Lonny Nickoles said.

You feel helpless, Prather admitted.By Tuesday morning, though, the helpless-

ness have given way to a determination and there is something empowering about it. Little by little, tree limb by tree limb, Tuesday was a day of recovery. Mondays despair was losing the fight against Tuesdays grim resolve.

The storm was overwhelming, Pastor Hurt said, watching a couple of little giggling girls tugging at a tree limb, dragging into the growing pile of debris. The response is more overwhelming.

Slim Smith is the managing editor of The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

A community comes together

The morning after, talk turns to the night before

Birney Imes/Dispatch StaffFrom left, Chad Creely, Joseph Savage and Canyon Boykin pause midday Tuesday during a clean-up of Mondays storm debris around the house Creely rents on Tabernacle Road.

Slim Smith

Birney Imes

Birney Imes/Dispatch StaffBobby Ray picks up storm debris in the front yard of his Tabernacle Road home Tuesday morning. Accompanying Ray on his rounds is the family dog, Molly.

Naturally, the topic of the day was Monday nights storm

EDITOR/PUBLISHERBirney Imes

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NEWS ABOUT TOWNCLUBSn AARP MEETINGAARP will meet May 7 at 10 a.m. in the Community Room of Regions bank on Main St. Members will vote on dining lo-cation for the next meeting. Call Margaret for information at 662-889-9496.

n FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORSThe Friends and Neighbors Club meets second Wednesdays through May at 10 a.m. at Lion Hills Golf Club, Columbus (and fourth Wednesdays June-August at various restaurants). Contact Rhena Friloux, 662-549-8800 or Twyla Summerford, 662-328-3381.

n SENIOR CRAFTSSenior Crafts meet at the Starkville Sportsplex Tuesdays, 10-11:30 a.m. Crafts are provided by the parks department. For information, call Lisa Cox at 662-323-2294.n TOPSTake Off Pounds Sensibly No. 288 meets every Monday at Community Baptist Church, Yorkville Road East. Weigh-in begins at 5:30 p.m. Contact Pat Harris, 662-386-0249.

n TOPSTake Off Pounds Sensibly No. 266 meets every Monday at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, 321 Forrest Blvd. Weigh-in begins at 5:15 p.m. Contact Mar-garet Sprayberry, 662-328-8627.

n TOPSTake Off Pounds Sensibly No. 270 meets every Tuesday at the Church of Christ Fellowship Hall, 900 Main St. in Caledo-nia. Weigh-in begins at 5:15 p.m. Contact Lorene Hawkins, 662-356-4838.

n QUILTING CLUBQuilting Club meets in the activities room adjacent to the multi-purpose facility at the Starkville Sportsplex on Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon. Bring your own project to work on. For information, call Lisa Cox, 662-323-2294.

n GOLDEN TRIANGLE AAGolden Triangle AA meets daily for support. If you want to drink, that is your business. If you want to stop drinking, that is our busi-ness. For information, call 662-327-8941.

n AL-ANON MEETINGThe Columbus Al-Anon Family Groups meets Mondays and Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. When you dont know where to turn because someone drinks too much, we can help. For information, call 888-425-2666 or go to msafg.org.

HEALTH NOTESn DIABETES SUPPORTDiabetes Support Group classes (day and evening classes available) are held each month at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle. For information, call 662-244-

1596 or email [email protected]

n NUTRITION EDUCATION Nutrition Education Classes for conges-tive heart failure meet the third Friday of every month at 3 p.m., Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle Classroom 5 For information, call 662-244-1597 or email [email protected].

n PROSTATE SCREENINGBaptist Center for Cancer Care offers free prostate PSA screenings the last Friday of every month from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Locations rotate between Columbus and Starkville. For appointments, call 662-244-4673.

n NUTRITION EDUCATION Nutrition Education Classes for diabetes meet the fourth Wednesday of every month at 8:30 a.m., Baptist Memorial Hospi-tal-Golden Triangle Outpatient Pavilion. Physician referral required. For information, call 662-244-1597 or email [email protected] ABUSE RECOVERY GROUPDomestic Abuse Recovery Groups meet every Thursday at 6 p.m., through Safe Ha-ven Inc. Group counseling for rape recovery is available. For information, call 662-327-6118 or 662-889-2067.

n CHILDBIRTH CLASSESBaptist Golden Triangle offers child-birth classes on Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. To register, call the Education Department at 662-244-2498 or email [email protected].

n CPR CLASSESCPR Classes are offered at Baptist Gold-en Triangle twice monthly, at 6 p.m. in the Patient Tower. Preregistration is required. Contact the Education Department at 662-244-2498 or email [email protected].

n ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT The Alzheimers Columbus Chapter Care-giver Support Group meets every fourth Thursday, 6 p.m., at ComforCare, 118 S. McCrary Road. For information, contact Columbus Jones, 662-244-7226.

n MS SUPPORTMultiple Sclerosis Support Group meets the first Tuesday of every month at the North Mississippi Medical Center, 835 Medical Center Drive in West Point.

n LOOK GOOD, FEEL BETTERBaptist Cancer Center hosts class for women actively undergoing chemother-apy or radiation for cancer on May 12 at 9 a.m., room 4 PT. Volunteer beauty professionals conduct the workshop. Call 662-244-2923 for information.

n ALZHEIMERS SUPPORTLocal Alzheimers support group will meet May 15 at 6:30 at the henry Clay Retire-ment Center Parlor, 133 Commerce St. For information, contact Brenda Johnson

at 662-495-2339 or 1-800-843-3375.

n CHILDBIRTH CLASSNorth Mississippi Medical Center in West Point offers prepared childbirth class for expectant parents from 6:30-8:30 p.m. throughout the month of May. To register, contact 662-495-2292 or 1-800-843-3375.

OTHER EVENTSn BLOOD DRIVEBaptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle hosts a blood drive May 2, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Conference Center in the Outpa-tient Pavilion. Register online at bloodhe-ro.com, sponsor code: baptistgt.

n EMCC THEATEREast Mississippi Community Colleges theater department will perform Agatha Christies The Mousetrap May 2-3 at 7:30 p.m. and May 4 at 2:30 p.m. at the Lyceum on the Mayhew Campus. Call 662-476-8417 for information.

n TORCH RUN Special Olympics MS hosts Law Enforce-ment Torch Run May 6, 9:30 a.m. Raise awareness and funds for Special Olympics by purchasing a T-shirt and participating in the run. Call 662-352-6795 for informa-tion.

n STAMP OUT HUNGERUSPS seeks help from community in food drive. To help, leave non-perishable foods next to your mailbox prior to regular deliv-ery on Saturday, May 10.

n OCH SUMMER CAMPDay camp for kids 8-13 years old to be held 8 a.m.-noon June 23-26 and July 14-17. Space is limited; call early, 662-323-9355 to register or for information.

n SAFE SITTEROCH hosts Safe Sitter Certification class to train to teens in babysitting, To sign up, contact Mary Kathryn Knight, 662-615-3067 or [email protected]

n GRANT APPLICATIONStarkville Oktibbeha Achieving Results, a non-profit community charitable organi-zation, is receiving grant applications for other non-profit organizations. Contact Jan Eastman at [email protected] for information.

n SENIOR GAMESThe Senior Center meets weekly at Propst Park, Columbus, Tuesdays from noon-4 p.m. for crafts, puzzles, quilting and caning chairs. Seniors meet Wednesday and Thursday for cards and games. For information, call 662-364-6085.

n YOUNG AT HEART DANCEStarkville Parks and Recreation hosts a young-at-heart dance every second and fourth Friday, 7-10 p.m. at the Sportsplex Activities building. No alcohol, no smok-ing. For information, call 662-312-9108.

Jeans and Jewels

Luisa Porter/Dispatch StaffDr. Paul Mack and his wife, Tommie, admire art on auction at the Jeans and Jewels 30th Annual Columbus Arts Council & Gala on Saturday. The event was held in West Point at the Town Creek Pavilion.


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BY CARL [email protected]

LOUISVILLE As a last-second pivot posi-tioned Winston Medical Center directly in the path of an EF-4 tornado Mon-day, long-time emergency room physician Mike Hen-ry began running through his unit and warning pa-tients to immediately hun-ker down and take cover.

Henry barely had time to notify patients of the storms sudden shift. He received notice moments earlier, Henry said, when a man ran through the ERs outside doors, screaming, Its here!

WMC, a small, rural health care facility in Lou-isville, suffered extensive damage Monday after-noon after the tornado ran a south-to-north path through the town, demol-ishing homes, leveling in-dustrial areas, destroying infrastructure and uproot-ing trees.

Portions of the hospi-tals walls collapsed, while the tornado also caused a gas leak and extensive roof damage to the facility and other nearby medical buildings.

Search and rescue operations continued in Louisville through Tues-day afternoon. Officials reported nine fatalities from Mondays storm, while search and rescue operations for missing people continued through the next day.

Henry, who has worked at the hospital for about 20 years, was finishing a day shift Monday afternoon

when storm cells strength-ened and approached Win-ston County. The emer-gency and waiting rooms neared capacity as the weather bore down on the facility. Hospital officials moved patients to the hall-way as a precaution, he said.

We kept getting re-ports and updates on the storm, but we thought we had a really good idea that it would miss us. All of a sudden, this thing turned, pivoted and came right at us, Henry said.

The ERs back wall was blown out when the tor-nado hit, Henry said, and winds began whipping through the facility. With-in moments, the storm be-gan pulling a handcuffed female inmates hospital gurney through the hall-way and toward the hole. Henry and another person grabbed her and pulled her out of the vacuum to safety.

People always say that tornadoes sound like trains, and theyre right It sounds like a train mov-ing right through you, he said. It hit and shook everything with an incred-ible, powerful force; then, it was done.

Henry said the damage was almost catastrophic: small objects littered the ER, the roof leaked wa-ter and steel beams were twisted with what seemed to be minimal effort. Out-side of the facility, power lines were downed, while cars in its parking lot were hurled through the air like toys to a nearby path of grass.

Nearby neighborhoods were leveled, and many homes were severely dam-aged by falling trees.

Doctors and nurses began assessing in-house patients immediately af-ter the storm. No injuries were reported from those already at the facility.

Injured Louisville and Winston County residents then began trickling into the hospital.

WMC officials setup a makeshift triage unit to deal with those injuries. Henry said many arrived with trauma-based inju-ries, such as open frac-tures, collapsed lungs from rib fractures and cuts and scrapes. Sever-al of the severely injured patients were stabilized locally and evacuated to area hospitals.

Jacksons University of Mississippi Medical Center immediately dis-patched a team of emer-gency physicians and medical supplies to sup-port WMC, Henry said. OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville and Baptist Memorial Hospi-tal-Golden Triangle also prepared their facilities for an influx of patients. Hospitals from across the state sent numerous am-bulances to Louisville to handle evacuations.

How much help we got was absolutely incredible, Henry said.

Henry worked through his shift and treated pa-tients through the early morning hours Tuesday.

Volunteers kept pour-ing in; everybody really stepped up to the plate, he said. I never want to experience anything like that again.

Louisville doctor clings to patient in terrifying tug-of-warPhysician recounts harrowing ordeal

Winston Med-ical Center sustained significant damage after an EF-4 tornado tore through Winston County on Monday afternoon.

Search continues for missing Louisville boyBY SARAH [email protected]

LOUISVILLE A bright, cloudless sky Tuesday morning provided a stark contrast to the debris-littered streets of Louis-ville.

The sounds of chainsaws and the smell of fresh-cut pine trees dominated the senses. Neigh-bors spoke to each other softly as emergency medical workers searched for the missing.

Winston County Coroner Scott Gregory confirmed that nine people were killed after an EF-4 tornado ripped from one end of the county to another Monday. The tornado wreaked havoc on everything from churches to daycare centers. Volunteers said the names of the deceased and of the missing in prayer as rescue efforts contin-ued Tuesday morning.

Tuesday evening Gregory said rescue efforts focused on finding 7-year-old Tyler Tucker. The bodies of the boys moth-er, Terri Tucker, and stepfather, Sean Fowler, were discovered in the area near the familys de-stroyed home off of Highway 379.

Before their bodies were dis-covered, Fowlers best friend,

Jaime Ainsworth, was standing along the roadside watching. Ainsworth lives a half-mile from the Fowler residence. He said he spoke with his friend less than five minutes before the torna-do hit. Fowler told Ainsworth he was standing on his porch, looking at a cemetery across the street.

He said, I dont see anything but Im gonna keep eyes on it, Ainsworth said. And thats the last I heard of him.

Fowlers wood-frame home is gone. Only a paved concrete driveway remains. Rescue work-ers used the driveway as a rest-ing place for family photographs they found.

The couples vehicles laid against a tree less than 500 feet from the house. By 8 a.m. Tues-day, Ainsworth had lost hope that his friend was alive. Fowl-ers body was found hours later.

We came over here last night looking for him and theres noth-ing here anymore, Ainsworth said. I think all we found last night was a dead dog of theirs and then a live dog of theirs. Vir-tually nothing else.

While rescue workers searched for the missing fami-ly, neighbors a street over were

thanking God for their safety.Steven and Clara Hampton

have lived on Jefferson Street for 30 years. Clara Hamptons elder-ly mother lives across the street. Steven Hampton is a minister. He said he feels Gods grace is what kept his family safe.

I know there wasnt nobody but God who kept us, he said. Because just me, myself per-sonally, the human side of me, at one point I felt like we was gone. I really did. I just thank God that He looked beyond our faults and His grace and mercy kept us.

During the storm, the Hamp-tons hid under a mattress. Their home is demolished.

Next door, Ariel Thomas was walking around in her front yard in her pajamas Tuesday. Her house is a pile of twisted beams.

Thomas was at the home with her parents and her 3-year-old child. The family gathered in a closet once they heard the whis-tle sound, Thomas said.

All four of us smushed in that closet and held a mattress over us, she said. Didnt no debris hit us or nothing. Glass is broken and we heard things throwing around but Im so happy weve got our life. Those are material things. Im so happy that it didnt suck us up.

Across from Jefferson Street is Memorial Park Cemetery. Tombstones laid toppled over and pine trees were on their

sides. What remains of Eiland Ave-

nue is at the foot of the hill.Linda Love and her husband,

Shirley Lee, were trapped after their home collapsed around them. Lee is wheelchair-bound. Before the tornado hit, Love was outside tending to her chickens. She said she rushed inside when she saw the tornado approach-ing.

I pushed (Lee) into the hall-way, just before I could get from my door to the hallway and that was it, Love said. It hit my house, throwed my husband out his wheelchair and then throwed me into him and then he was on top of me. Next thing I remem-ber they were pulling me out.

Love said Lee is in the hospi-tal being treated for his injuries. The couples son, who is also named Shirley Lee, was stand-ing several feet from what re-mained of his parents house. He and several friends were loading chickens into a truck. They stopped to take a break and began complaining about what they felt was lack of help from fellow community members and emergency services.

People was coming over here to be nosey instead of help-ing these people out, he said. You see people with bones sticking out, chunks of meat missing on them, wood sticking

through them and they aint do-ing nothing to help? Man, weve been helping these people all night.

The group said they had each dug through rubble to find peo-ple. Taking a deep drag from his cigarette, the younger Lee esti-mated he and his friends pulled half a dozen people from a de-molished apartment complex.

The Revival, formerly known as Eiland Plaza, housed ap-proximately 20 adults and nu-merous children, the men said. Moments earlier, another body had been discovered among the buildings rubble.

Those who had been dis-placed were being directed to First Baptist Church and First Methodist Church.

In addition to the demolition in the south side of Louisville, the Winston Medical Center on the north side of town sustained substantial damage. A daycare there was demolished. The own-er, Ruth Bennett, is among the dead.

Reached this morning, Greg-ory said the search for Tyler Tucker continues.

Gregory said once the miss-ing have been found, Louisville will heal and rebuild.

Were going to be all right, he said. Well rise up from this and were going to be good.

Parts of Winston County demolished by EF-4 tornado Monday

Mary Alice Weeks/Dispatch Staff

Mary Alice Weeks/Dispatch StaffA sign of gratefulness is displayed outside a home on Main Street in Louisville on Tuesday morning after an EF-4 tornado tore through Winston County on Monday night.


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ColumbusContinued from Page 1A

Twelve mobile homes on Beck Road were de-stroyed.

The National Weather Service is assessing the damage to determine the severity of the tornado that touched down near the intersection of Highways 82 and 45 South, as well as other possible tornadoes that went through East Lowndes County.

Columbus Light and Water General Manager Todd Gale said he hopes to have the majority of the 300 residences still without power this morn-ing back on the grid by Thursday evening.

Carolyn Nickoles said she was in the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church base-ment when the storm was overhead. The church had roof and water damage from the excess winds. She wasnt able to get to her house because fallen trees and debris blocked the road.

We had about 20 people and five dogs just chillin under the church, she said.

More cleanup was on-going at Pleasant Hill and Lacy roads. Lisa Brewer, another Pleasant Hill Bap-tist Church member, was one of a dozen people in the yard picking up limbs and patching up the house of the churchs minister of music, Wylie Dilmore. Brewer said she was in the laundry room in her house at the time the storm reached her area and was safe. Her yard received a few fallen limbs, she said. When she found out about the damage to many houses on Lacy Road, she became one of countless

people in that area pitch-ing in to get debris on the side of the road.

Somewhere behind an old, giant cedar tree that had fallen victim to the storm, Jason McCool and Carl Veazey were running their chainsaws, splitting another tree that had fallen down in front of a

neighbors mobile home on Lacy Road into smaller chunks. The mobile home was spared, just a few visi-ble dents on its front right side. They had been out there since 8 a.m. Tuesday.

McCool declined to repeat what he said when he first saw the damage.

I havent seen it this

bad in eight or nine years, he said.

Lawrence encouraged anyone needing assistance to call the Columbus Lowndes Emergency Management Agency at 662-329-5110.

Nathan Gregory/Dispatch StaffThe Columbus Speedway on Hutcherson Road suffered extensive damage, but track manager Joe Ables said he expects for it to be cleaned up in time for a May 17 race.

BY NATHAN [email protected]

The races will go on at Columbus Speedway. Just not this weekend.

Wind damage from Mondays se-vere weather outbreak turned a ma-jority of the three-eighths-of-a-mile race track on Hutcherson Road into a field of debris. Bleachers and raised viewing areas for spectators suffered extensive damage. But track manager Joe Ables said he has the equipment to clean up the

Baddest Bullring of the South in two days time.

Ables said family and friends come first, though, and he will be helping them get back to normal be-fore moving the cleanup operation to the track.

The races that were planned for this weekend have been canceled, but Ables said hes confident that the track will be ready for a weekly racing series event scheduled for May 17.

Weve got two power lines down,

and other than that were ready to go racing, Ables said. Weve just got several hours of cleanup.

Track promoters refurbished the facility, which plays host to numer-ous races each year from March to September, in 2012.

Ables said his concern when the track is cleaned up is safety.

Well be making sure all the de-bris is up to try to protect the driv-ers tires and make sure theres no glass or nails laying around for kids to get on, he said. Ill check all the rest of the towers out for safety be-fore we let anybody in.

Columbus Speedway suffers major damageTrack manager says races will resume soon

CarletonContinued from Page 1A

have a permanent chief in the next 30 days.

The city will do an in-house search for the new chief with current CPD per-sonnel having five working days to apply. A committee made up of Smith, Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell, Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong, and councilmen Joseph Mickens and Bill Gavin will vet the applicants.

Smith declined to say why they choose Carleton as interim. The decision is effective immediately.


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