Hurricane notes

By Staff
September 17, 2004
Here are announcements from civil authorities and some of the sights reporters captured in Meridian and Lauderdale County on Thursday as Hurricane Ivan moved through the area:
Seen around town
Strong winds ripped a traffic light from dangling power lines at the 22nd Avenue exit on Interstate 20/59 near a SuperStop convenience store. The traffic light landed in a nearby patch of shrubbery.
Two Lauderdale County residents stopped cutting trees for about five minutes to chat about Lauderdale County supervisors' decision to raise property taxes by 6.9 percent. The men talked about what spending supervisors could have cut.
A large part of a sign for the Wal-Mart SuperCenter south of I-20/59 was ripped from its pole and landed on the street below.
A large pine tree fell on top of a mobile home on Springhill Road in south Lauderdale County.
Fredie Carmichael
City, county schools closed
Meridian Public School Superintendent Sylvia Autry said city schools will remain closed today because several campuses were damaged by high winds Wednesday night.
Autry said the auditorium roof at Meridian High School blew off sometime early Thursday morning and the entrance to Parkview Elementary School was blocked by a downed tree. She also said none of the city's 13 campuses had power as of Thursday afternoon.
Lauderdale County School Superintendent David Little said county schools will also be closed today. Maintenance crews were working Thursday to assess the damage at the county's nine campuses. Little said the worst damage came when a tree fell on a bus, totaling it.
Little said principals and janitors will return to the schools today to clean up and prepare for students to return to class on Monday.
Georgia E. Frye
Red Cross shelters
Teresa Nester, office manager for the Lauderdale County American Red Cross, said the county's five shelters will remain open today but two shelters were closed on Thursday.
Nester said people staying at the NorthPark Baptist and Northcrest Baptist church shelters were sent to Poplar Springs Drive Methodist Church or Poplar Springs Drive Baptist Church. She said the shelters are being shut down because they had only about 20 people staying there.
Lauderdale County residents, however, were beginning to file into local shelters on Thursday because of power outages and damage to their homes. Hot meals will be served to those who are staying at the shelter, but not to those who are without power.
She said each shelter can hold up to 200 people, and the closed shelters will be reopened if necessary.
For more information, call 485-5151.
Georgia E. Frye
HoJo's, Cracker Barrel and Bonita Lakes Mall
Claire Manly of Picayune has spent the past three days at Howard Johnson's and, despite the hurricane, she has enjoyed her stay in Meridian.
Manly, who was staying with her grandson, Davis, stopped for lunch at the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store on Highway 11/80 on Thursday before heading back home. She said she called her neighbor in Picayune early Thursday and her home received minimal damage.
She said she has spent a lot of money while in Meridian mostly on toys to keep her grandson occupied.
The Manlys were among many Meridian residents and storm evacuees who flooded local restaurants on Thursday to escape the wind, rain and power outages.
Harvey and Julia Scarbrough also were at Cracker Barrel eating lunch because the power is out at their Valley Road home. Harvey said Valley Road was closed early Thursday due to downed trees but, as of about noon, the road had been reopened.
Shelter-seekers also flocked to Bonita Lakes Mall, and many sat around the food court and waited for the storm to pass.
Ed McRaney of Houston, Texas, said he was trying to get to Florida on Wednesday but was diverted to Meridian. He said he slept in the mall's parking lot in his motor home.
Georgia E. Frye