Storm destroys parish deputy’s home

Published 4:00 pm Sunday, February 25, 2007

A tornado dropped from the darkened sky just before 8 p.m. Saturday night knocking down trees, power lines and destroying several mobile homes.

Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Jerry Emfinger’s mobile home off Louisiana 566 was destroyed. But he was not injured, Concordia Sheriff officials said in a written release.

Emfinger was inside of his truck when his mobile home was destroyed.

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“He’s OK, but they say he’s lost everything,” said CPSO Sgt. Todd Ainsworth.

Portions of Louisiana 566 looked like a war zone with huge trees blocking the roadway and electrical power lines intertwined with trees that had been uprooted along the roadside.

“It’s probably a tornado,” said Chad Entremont, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Jackson office. “It wouldn’t be official until we go out and survey it, but I’m 99 percent it was a tornado.

“This thing started a mile or two south of Jonesville,” Entremont said.

Jonesville Police reported a number of mobile homes damaged, one destroyed, along with tree limbs down and sporadic power outages. No injuries had been reported to them by late Saturday night.

Darkness prevented many Frogmore witnesses from seeing a funnel cloud, but some said it sounded like the traditional “freight train like” sounds often associated with tornadoes.

“It sounded like a big roar,” said Harvey Cowan, a volunteer firefighter with Concordia Fire District No. 2.

Cowan was just down the road from where the heaviest damage was sustained along Louisiana 566, approximately 6 miles from U.S. 84.

Cowan said he definitely heard something that sounded like a train, a “big one.”

Large sections of the roadway were blocked late Saturday as crews attempted to clear away the trees and debris and restore electrical power to areas affected.