HAZLEHURST, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
The outer bands of Tropical Storm Isaac continued to track through communities south of the metro Thursday. Copiah County residents say the storms struck in the middle of the night, taking many by surprise.
A Hazlehurst woman is homeless tonight after the home she was renting was destroyed in part to Isaac. A giant tree in the front yard slicing it in too, after it could no longer stand to the whipping winds.
The owner of the property, Jeff Varas says, "Three this morning I guess with all the rain then the wind it just come over, came through the house and thank God the lady renting it from me was able to get out of the house, and the fire department showed up and they were able to get her out the kitchen window."
The female tenant was unhurt. The home a total loss, and a huge sentimental loss for Jeff Varas and his family. This is where he raised his two boys. The home is insured.
"It was not what we had anticipated in terms of the winds and gusts and the amount of rain," said Varas.
Some portions of Highway 51 were blocked by trees split in two by the storm. Throughout the day county officials working to keep traffic moving.
"We had so many trees down at one time we had to suspend cutting them because everyone was worm slam out. We went back and we cataloged and indexed and went back early this morning and started cutting them again," said Sheriff Harold Jones. "We had trees falling on and off all day today. We used volunteer fire department 9-1-1 people, local police department, we all worked together."
Amazingly the driver of a crushed vehicle abandoned on the shoulder of a Copiah County highway was not seriously hurt, when a tree landed on their windshield as they were driving north on I-55. The Mitsubishi was crushed under the impact.
Multiple homes and businesses remained in the dark for much of the day, due to widespread power outages, all in the wake of this slow moving storm.
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