WINONA – Funeral services for a Winona couple killed in last month’s deadly tornado were held this past weekend in Montgomery County. Bobby Yates, 57, and his wife, Mary, 58, were reportedly visiting a niece in Weir, when the F4 tornado struck on April 24 in the Choctaw County community. Weir is Southeast of French Camp and Kilmichael, and numerous homes were devastated by the storm.
The couple died of internal injuries.
According to officials, Bobby was an employee of the city of Winona’s street department, and friends said the couple had been married for many years. Reportedly, they had no children together, but Mary had a daughter from an earlier relationship.
Separate funeral services were held for the Yates’ on Saturday, May 1, in Winona and Bobby was later buried in Kilmichael and Mary was buried in Winona.
The National Weather Service said the tornado that swept through the state began as an F5 tornado in Louisiana and had weakened to an F4 by the time it reached Mississippi. An F5 is the highest rating given to a tornado.
Weather officials said in years past, Mississippi has seen several F5’s including the Great Natchez Tornado in 1840 that killed 300, the Tupelo-Gainesville outbreak in 1936 that claimed 230 and Vicksburg during the early 1950s and Candlestick Park on March 4, 1966, that each claimed one life.
Meteorologists said one of the most significant storms occurred on Feb. 21, 1971 when a string of tornadoes swept through the Mississippi Delta killing an estimated 123 people.
That two-day outbreak produced 19 tornadoes across three states with the majority of the fatalities being caused by three violent tornadoes across Mississippi and northeastern Louisiana.
“That’s the worse that we’d ever seen especially when it came to the number of fatalities,” said Chad Entremont of the National Weather Service in Jackson. “Each tornado had such a tremendous force.”
The National Weather Service confirmed that 10 people were killed in last month’s tornado including five in Choctaw County, four in Yazoo and one in Holmes County.
Be the first to comment