Mississippi
‘It’s pretty crazy.’ Checks from MS church destroyed by tornado found 80 miles away
‘It’s just a reminder of how powerful these storms are and how far they can carry things and drop them off. It gives a whole new meaning to Air Mail, doesn’t it?’
Tornado in Mississippi
Eyewitness footage of cloud shaping into a wedge as it forms a tornado in near the Loyd Star Attendance Center in Brookhaven, Mississippi on Saturday, December 28, 2024.
Reuters
A Mississippi church was flattened on Dec. 28 as an outbreak of tornadoes passed through parts of the state and some of the contents of the church were found scattered in Rankin County up to about 80 miles away.
“There was a confirmed EF1 (tornado) that touched down within a mile of me,” said Ricky Flynt of Brandon. “We had some pretty intense winds for a minute or two.
“It didn’t get to us until about 10 minutes after seven o’clock. I think it came through Meadville about five.”
Flynt had been monitoring the weather as the deadly storms passed through Mississippi killing two people and injuring another 10. However, he didn’t know there was a connection between the weather that struck his area and the storm that struck the Meadville area and flattened a church until the next morning.
Tornado drops check from 1984 in Brandon, MS resident’s driveway
“I came out the next morning after it was light just to confirm any damage and to look around,” Flynt said. “Right there in my driveway was this folded-up, cancelled check.”
The check was from the now-flattened O’Zion Baptist Church located near Meadville and was written to the Franklin County Baptist Association in 1984. It had travelled just over 80 miles and wasn’t the only cancelled check found in the area.
“Since, I’ve heard about five or six checks landing in the Brandon area,” Flynt said. “It’s pretty crazy. Whatever was in that church got up into the atmosphere and was deposited in the Brandon area.”
MS man finds tornado-blown check while scouting for deer
John Beggerly of Florence found another check on Wednesday just east of Byram while scouting for a place to hunt on his family farm. It was written in 1982.
“That was one of the craziest experiences I’ve ever experienced,” Beggerly said. “I was on the edge of the woods in a pasture on our farm. I saw a piece of paper and it was sticking up.”
He said he picked it up and realized what it was because he’d seen a social media post about the check Flynt had found.
“It’s amazing how far stuff can travel,” Beggarly said. “I think it was 60 1/2 miles from the church to where I found it — pretty wild.”
Tornadoes can carry objects hundreds of miles
Pretty wild it is. According to Latrice Maxie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, debris can go remain aloft high in the sky for very long distances.
“They’re probably getting pulled up hundreds of feet, for sure,” Maxie said. “The circulations are much higher, but the tornadoes themselves can loft debris a couple of hundred feet in the air.”
In long-track tornadoes, Maxie said she’s heard of letters being found hundreds of miles from where they originated.
“It’s not uncommon for (tornadoes) that stay on the ground for a while,” Maxie said.
That was the case in spring of 2023 when a tornado struck the home of Susan Perry in Rolling Fork and scattered photos and other items of hers over a 200-mile track.
“It’s unbelievable that people are finding this,” Perry told The Clarion Ledger at the time. “It just amazes me that these things can travel so far.”
Pastor of MS church destroyed by tornado wants to use checks to tell story of event
Lance Moak is the pastor of O’Zion Baptist Church and said the checks were stored in the church on shelf above filing cabinets. He said everything on the shelf is gone, but checks keep showing up.
“I had one gentleman call me from Florence at 10:50 on Monday night,” Moak said. “He’d found a check from 1990 made out to one of our former pastors.
“It’s just a reminder of how powerful these storms are and how far they can carry things and drop them off. It gives a whole new meaning to Air Mail, doesn’t it? “
Like Flynt and Beggerly, the caller said he’d return the check. Those checks and others will serve as somewhat of a memorial.
“He’s actually going to mail that check back so we can put it up in the new church to tell about the history of this happening,” Moak said.
A GoFundMe account has been set up for those wishing to provide financial aid to rebuild O’Zion Baptist Church.
Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.