Southwest Mississippi Community College - Whispering Pines Yearbook (Summit, MS)

Page 24 text:

I For Some, A Tragedy; For Others, A Miracle North Pike Elementary School—One of the hardest hit areas. These homes in North McComb are on adjacent lots. This showed how the tornado destroyed one house and left the one next door unharmed except for a few limbs. 20

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Hey, what’d we have for supper? Yum, that strawberry cake looks good!” Either one glass of tea or one carton of m dk, Not both.” “Hey can I borrow your I ' D.? “Watch out, here comes Mrs. Pope. “Hurry and finish your hamburger so we can go play cards.” “Oh no, mystery meat again ..“Oh, come on, it’s really Pretty good!” “Do we get ice-cream today?” “Well, it looks like fried chicken today. ... Oh boy, I’m starving!”

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X ?P : home on Hi-way 51 in McComb suffered heavy damage. Above: Another demolished home—the n ds spared this one nothing. Below: One of the hundreds of old trees uprooted by the storm. Below: The en K)lished SW Mall is to be rebuilt within the next year z “Oh, it ' s just a little thunderstorm; It’ll pass over.” That’s what some of us at SMJC thought January 10 , 1975, at 8:23. However, those students in classes facing east were looking out the windows watch¬ ing a dark funnel tossing bricks, lumber, parts of homes, clothes, and other debris, as it danced and skipped in the dark gray sky. As the storm passed over, taking power lines with it, we were left with no electric¬ ity for the rest of the day. As students gazed out windows and saw ambulances, highway-patrolmen, police, and civil de¬ fense units squilling through our campus, we knew something disastrous had hap¬ pened. It was soon learned that North Pike Elementary School, located only one- fourth mile from SMJC had been de¬ stroyed by the tornado. Quickness and alertness by the faculty resulted in no deaths or serious injuries of the 400 students. Our thoughts did not turn to the possible damage the tornado had done to McComb, until we heard on the radio that the SW Mall had been demolished. Still, no one suspected that over one hundred homes and businesses were completely blown away. Another hard-hit area was along Summit Street in the Burgland Community. Rag¬ ing, powerful winds sucked an apartment complex up into the sky and strewed it for miles. Numerous homes and buildings were destroyed in this area. A quite elegant part of McComb suffered greatly from the destructive breeze. Hun¬ dreds of “great-grandfather” oak trees were blown up by the roots and laid across the roofs of the homes. In this section of town, our former college president, Mr. H.T. Huddleston made his home. His home was totally lost. As in every tornado, there were reports of strange experiences. One lady in west McComb heard the storm approaching so she took her new baby and attempted to leave her house. After realizing it would not be safe to leave, she went back inside and got in a closet. When the storm was over, she walked out of the closet to find that the only thing standing in her house was the closet and three walls. Another lady reported that she found a rug with Rose’s Department Store on it that had a dozen eggs in a carton wrapped in it. She opened this carton to find that no eggs were broken. This was the worst tragedy McComb had suffered in twenty-five years. Luckily, there were no more than twelve deaths. Although, to look at the path of destruc¬ tion the tornado left, one cannot under¬ stand why and how there were not thou sands of tragedies. It will take many years to rebuild the town to what it was. But, let’s be thankful we have something left to rebuild.