By Alyssa Schnugg

Senior reporter

At least 17 homes were damaged to varying degrees on Saturday when a cold front rolled into Lafayette County. Some of these homes were likely in the path of a possible tornado in the eastern part of Lafayette County.

According to Lafayette County Emergency Management, storm damage in the Lafayette Springs, Thaxton, and Hurricane communities appears to have been caused by a tornado.

“We can’t officially confirm that a tornado hit Lafayette County, but everything we’ve examined indicates that it did,” said Lafayette County Public Information Officer Beau Moore.

The National Weather Service is investigating the damage to determine whether it was, in fact, caused by a tornado.

The Lafayette County Board of Supervisors declared a Local State of Emergency to quickly respond to the needs of citizens, reassign personnel and deploy vehicles, trucks, and equipment to respond to the damaged areas and infrastructure, and apply for funding for any damage to infrastructure.

One home was destroyed when it was struck by lightning, and several homes sustained damage due to high winds. Multiple trees were toppled throughout the county, causing widespread power outages that lasted for a day or two for some residents.

The storms on Saturday were part of a four-day weather system that wreaked havoc on neighboring communities and western Tennessee for two days before reaching Lafayette County. A short-lived windstorm toppled a few trees and power lines in Oxford on Thursday. The dark clouds and strong wind gusts arrived quickly, but produced little to no rain, leaving the area about 10 minutes later.

Tornado sirens sounded Saturday afternoon and continued for more than an hour and a half. After the warnings silenced heavy rain fell, causing local street flooding and some flash flooding on several city and county roadways.

When the clouds cleared, 17 homes were reported damaged in Lafayette County, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

Across Mississippi, the storm system resulted in one fatality in Jasper County, injured seven people, and damaged 274 homes, four businesses, and nine farms across 20 counties. Of the damaged homes, 50 were destroyed, and 53 sustained major damage.

Moore said that no injuries were reported in Lafayette County.