Emergency personnel react to weekend tornado

The city of Meridian was hit by an EF-2 tornado on Saturday. The last time the city saw a tornado with this strength storm through was in 1906.

“It’s been quite a few years since a tornado went through the city of Meridian. But always be prepared because as we have learned it can change at the drop of a hat. So, always be prepared for the worst even if things look like they’re calming down. It can always pick back up, I mean, that proved true Saturday,” Said Lauderdale Emergency Management Agency director Scott Spears.

Spears says the winds of the tornado were around 115 miles per hour and that cleanup will be going on for the next several days.

“I’m in the back parking lot of the LEMA office, and if you look behind me here where this blue tarp is, this is a building that belongs to the county, and the tornado completely destroyed that. There’s also trailers back here that were completely moved. We have this one that was moved from up here, to back here. And we have this other one that was moved from this parking spot, to back here,” Spears explained. “Anytime we go under severe weather watch or warning or weather aware alert, you always need to be prepared to go to your safe spot, wherever that safe spot is. Whether it’s a tornado shelter or a center of a room, wherever your safe spot is: always be prepared to head that way.”