Clean-Up Continues in Clay County

CLAY COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- The sound of chainsaws could still be heard across parts of western Clay County Friday.  Storms Wednesday Night toppled trees and knocked out power for hundreds.

In Pheba, several trees were downed by the estimated 60 mph winds, with many more damaged.  Power crews had much of the power restored by Thursday, but Friday, residents were still cleaning up.

Johnny Tate was in his yard Friday cleaning up debris from trees that had fallen.

He hoped to have his yard cleaned up by the weekend.

“We had a couple of trees down and one on a fence, we had to clean that up.  My daughter had a tree down, and it blew the trampoline at her house into her pool,” Tate said.

Just up the road, a home was destroyed after a large tree toppled over into it.  The owner was inside as the tree hit.  It missed him by only a few feet, but he was trapped under the debris.

Pheba Firefighters responded after the storm to the home.

They had to pull out the occupant through the destroyed roof of the home.  He sustained minor injuries and refused treatment at the scene.

Pheba Fire Chief Philip Kellum was one of the first responders.  Based on the call, he was prepared for the worst.

However, he does believes some of the training helped with the response to the home.

“We have never had anything to this magnitude, to this close of a call that we’ve actually had to deal with.  There’s a lot of different trainings you can do as far as storm and weather trainings go, but it’s hard to really pinpoint and bank on doing the same thing on every call.  You can just go out and hope for the best at every call, stay safe and do what you are trained to do.”

Chief Kellum credits the local community for coming together to help those affected by the damage.

There is a Go-Fund me to help the homeowner that was trapped in the storm.

You can find that by clicking here.