EF1 tornado, lightning cause damage
posted Wednesday, February 27th, 2013 @ 1:50 pm

An EF1 tornado with wind speed of 90 miles per hour touched down in the Clayton area on Thursday at 5:12 p.m. causing property damage, according to Mark McAllister, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, Miss.

McAllister said the tornado was 75 yards wide and traveled 2.5 miles.

He said the twister was on the ground about three minutes.

"It touched down near Hwy. 65 south of Clayton and traveled east," McAllister said.

He said a roof was torn off a mobile home and the roofs of two houses, one on Traxler Road, were damaged. An 18-wheeler trailer was turned over and a shed was flipped.

Additionally, McAllister said a "truck and trailer were pushed around about 15 feet before the tornado dissipated east of Traxler Road."

Meanwhile, Vidalia High School was without computers, Internet, bell system and had limited phone service after a lightning bolt struck a tower at the school Thursday.

Vidalia principal Rick Brown had to use a bullhorn with a siren sound to signal students to change classes until the system was back on line Tuesday.

"We just had to improvise," Brown said. "I was outside when the lightning hit and it shook me up."