Storm leaves mark on Cairo

Published 10:29 am Monday, March 4, 2019

CAIRO — Cairo officials are still calculating the extent of the damage from a tornado that touched down there Sunday evening.

There are no reported serious injuries or deaths from the storm, though one individual was transported to the hospital with minor injuries.

A majority of the damage was centered in and around the city of Cairo and was mostly structural.

“We’re just fortunate nobody was hurt and we’re fortunate that it was nothing as bad as what we saw in Alabama or some other states,” said Grady County administrator Buddy Johnson.

All county schools were closed Monday for students and teachers.

School superintendent Kermit Gilliard said he anticipated classes would resume Tuesday, but added that it depended on power being restored at Southside Elementary and Cairo High School.

Gilliard said both schools lost power during the storm.

The superintendent said aside from losing power, Southside suffered minor structural damage during the storm. Some ceiling tiles were scattered off the ceiling grid along the fourth and fifth grade wing of the school. A gazebo on the school’s playground was also destroyed.

Gilliard said there were fallen and damaged trees at both schools as well.

Chamber of Commerce director Trey Gainous said he was aware of more than 10 downtown business that were damaged by the storm.

“Our downtown proper is in disrepair for sure,” Gainous said.

Johnson said two ambulance vehicles that happened to be in the area where the tornado hit suffered some damage.

 

Recovery crews erected roadblocks downtown as they cleared debris Monday.

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee issued an initial tornado warning in Grady County at 7:51 p.m. Sunday.

The NWS reissued the warning once a tornado was confirmed to be on the ground at 8:04 p.m.

Parks Camp, science and operations officer, stated the exact time the tornado formed was probably between the two times and that the event likely did not last longer than 10 minutes.

Camp said a survey team was in Cairo Monday to determine the path and intensity of the tornado.

“We won’t know exactly when it touched down and when it lifted until they finish their survey and find the beginning point and end point of the tornado,” Camp said.