Was it a tornado or just straight-line winds?
Some citizens are still debating the point; however, emergency officials are saying the damage done to trees and structures in the county last week was the result of strong winds, and no tornado touched down in Sunflower County.
Radar, though, did indicate rotation in the Holly Ridge area as part of the storm system that came through last Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and a warning was issued.
Those who had weather alerts on their mobile phones were warned, but the city’s sirens remained silent.
Indianola residents were warned of the severity of the storm by FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, which sent out a tornado warning alert to many cell phones.
The absence of a warning prompted some Indianola residents to ask why the tornado sirens never sounded and apparently it was due to a miscommunication.
Sunflower County Emergency Management Director Denny Evans, who has only been in the position since January, never called for the alert to be sounded.
Evans said he was unaware that the responsibility fell to his shoulders.
He and Fire Chief Orlando Battle did converse about the matter later, and according to Battle, the county’s stormwatchers were actively surveilling the skies.
“We made the decision not to sound it, because it never came near us. The only thing we got was a torrential downpour,” Battle added.
As for the siren, Evans and Battle said the standard protocol is for the National Weather Service in Jackson to call the EMA director and advise him that conditions warrant the sounding of the sirens. The director would then call the fire chief or designated fire personnel and advise them to sound the civil defense (tornado alert) siren.
The fast moving storm that raged across the Delta on June 19 purportedly caused the death of one man near Shaw, when a tree fell on his home. It also broke trees, threw heavy branches to the ground in parts of Sunflower County and even pulled bricks from the side of one church here in Indianola.
Evans and Battle planned to meet this week to work the kinks out of their action plan to prevent any future hiccups.
