By Tony Martin
Associate Editor
First Church, Beaumont, in Perry County was damaged by an EF-2 tornado on Easter Sunday, according to pastor Josh Powell.
“There was a tornado warning north of Richton about 7:30 p.m. or 8 p.m.,” Powell said. “About 8:45, I’m sitting at the house and the lights start flickering and then went out. I heard the most awful whistling going on outside and thought, ‘That’s some wind gusts.’ Then I heard cracking as some limbs from a big oak tree in our yard started breaking.”
Powell quickly moved his family to a safe place in their home. “It was always just a thunderstorm warning, never a tornado warning,” he said. “The tornado touched down in Greer’s CashSaver [supermarket] parking lot, tore off some of the roof, and then touched down behind the church.”
The roof on the back corner of the church over the office was ripped off. The steeple housing was cracked and windows blew out, but the sanctuary avoided major damage. All the church’s office equipment was ruined, as were the contents of a storage room next to the office.
“We don’t know if there’s any water damage in the ceiling or not yet,” Powell said. A storage shed on church property was destroyed. The roof of a shed over the church van was blown off but the van sustained no damage, he said.
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado — reaching wind speeds of 120 mph – touched down for 1.67 miles and was 275 yards wide at its broadest. There was tree damage at 20-25 homes. No injuries or deaths have been reported.
“The church will bounce back,” Powell said. “We’ve had a great outpouring of support from the community, and we want to help the community as much as possible. I’ve told our folks that this is an opportunity to show people in Beaumont that we’re here for them. I’ve never seen a town come together like Beaumont has.”
“The church will bounce back. We’ve had a great outpouring of support from the community, and we want to help the community as much as possible.”
Josh Powell, pastor of First Church, Beaumont
Hubert Yates, disaster relief director at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, reported that a team from Carterville Church, Petal, assisted with church cleanup. “There was also a group from Shady Grove Church in Greene County to help with trees,” he said.
“It could have been much worse, but it was bad enough,” Yates observed. “There’s been lots of neighbor helping neighbor response. A lot of yards have already been cleaned up.”
