Lafayette County sees damage from pair of Easter Sunday storms

Published 12:11 pm Monday, April 13, 2020

Easter Sunday brought devastating storms to Mississippi, and Lafayette County wasn’t immune to the destruction.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported 11 fatalities in six counties from Sunday’s two storms as of Monday morning.

There were 18 counties throughout the state that reported damage, according to MEMA’s initial storm report published on Monday. Nearby Panola County reported one fatality.

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Lafayette County reported five homes damaged from the high winds. Several trees were blown down around Oxford, including one in Oxford Memorial Cemetery.

“We probably had 100 to 200 trees down, scattered all over the county,”  said Lafayette County emergency management director Steve Quarles. “We’re actually in real good shape.”

Quarles said most of the county roads that were blocked due to trees were close to opening back up as of Monday afternoon, though a few still had downed power lines as of just before noon on Monday.

North East Mississippi Electric Power Association had 4,117 reported outages as of noon on Monday. Oxford Electric reported 17 outages.

Governor Tate Reeves declared a State of Emergency on Sunday night, giving Mississippi two separate state of emergency orders. Reeves had previously declared a State of Emergency last month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.