Picture of Smithville Tornado

[Besmith]

[colreb2000]

[Big Bass Man]

It has been a CRAZY weather day!!

[T. Wright]

My prayers go out to them, Lot of devistation in that little town. My wife is from Amory and she is talking to people there and they are saying the whole town of Smithville is destroyed. Also if you live in Monroe county, the power will be out for at least three days.

[JoHa]

I think this is the same storm that hit Hackleburg and Phil Campbell, AL. Reports I'm hearing tonight is that at least 50 dead in Phil Campbell/Hackleburg (I hope those are incorrect #'s). It was a very strong and destructive tornado. Prayers go out to these communities.

We had a confirmed tornado touch down within the Belmont city limits at about 4:00am this morning. Missed my house by a few hundred yards. No fatalities and only a few minor injuries here. It stayed on the ground for about 8-10 miles and the path was about 50yds wide. Lots of damage to homes and some buildings completely destroyed. We were very lucky.<br /><br />
Modified by JoHa at 12:18 AM 4/28/2011


Modified by JoHa at 12:45 PM 4/28/2011

[ep72]

[unklenew]

[Stanford]

[blacsdad]

This picture was obviously taken on hwy 278 looking west toward wren, ms, just west of Amory and the old run bridge. The historical sign you see in front of the truck is referencing d'Iberville's supposed "Cannon Hole" located somewhere in the bottoms nearby to the left. Here the tornado is crossing the hwy at the top of what we call "Cotton Gin Hill" or "Colbert's Hill" overlooking the Tombigbee river bottom. From there it traveled the bottom land and crossed the Tombigbee river practically on the HWY 6 bridge over the old run (where it surprisingly did little damage considering) between Amory and Bigbee. It then followed the waterway to Smithville and leveled most everything between HWY 25 and the waterway (Smithville Lake), about more than half of the town in the city limits. I know all of this, unfortunately, because I had to go to Smithville later and help my friend find his family and get them out of there. I hope I never see anything like that again.

If I knew how to upload pics to this forum, I would show one that highlights the damage to the timber on top of Cotton Gin Hill, where the tornado is in the original thread picture. Acres of mature pine timber were snapped off about halfway up the trunk.


Modified by blacsdad at 11:24 AM 4/28/2011

[moodyjeremy]

+1

[Besmith]

You are correct on the location. But it is the tornado that hit Smithville.

[colreb2000]

They said it was about 1/2 mile wide.....and after seeing the damage in Smithville and down Hwy. 23 today, I'd say that's about right.