
Bulldogs have close calls in Easter storms
PERKINSTON — It was nearly midnight on Easter Sunday, and probably like many high school students in the time of quarantine, Q.J. Skipper was up late at night playing video games.
It was nearly midnight when his game was interrupted. The power had gone out at his grandmother's house in a Clarksdale neighborhood. The blackout made him get up and leave his room.
That power outage turned into a life-changing blessing.
"I feel very lucky," Skipper said. "I'd say like two minutes in there, and I'd probably be dead."
A large tree fell over onto the house, smashing into it and landing square in his bedroom.
Skipper's story was one of a few close calls for future and current Mississippi Gulf Coast student-athletes. He's a running back signee on his way to join the national championship football Bulldogs.
He was lucky to escape the fate of 12 people killed in the state in the violent Easter Sunday severe storm outbreak, including a string of tornadoes. The most powerful cell, which included an EF4 tornado, ended in Clarke County. Two players from Gulf Coast's second-ranked softball team live in Enterprise, freshmen Sarah Brannan and Hannah Herrington.
Brannan's house is about a mile from where it finished its path of destruction. She and her family had been following a Clarke County Facebook page which was live-streaming information about the storm as well as the television news.
When they heard the storm was close, they got into a little bathroom in their house and covered up with blankets, pillows and themselves. The first tornado that was nearby had them bunkered down for 10 minutes, and after a 45-minute break, they got back in there for another 15.
"It got real windy and the rain was heavy," Brannan said. "Everybody says you hear a freight train when it's coming, but we didn't hear much, but we were also in our little storm place. I guess that's why we didn't hear much. It got loud though."
Herrington said it got dark and windy at her house, and there were tornado sirens going off. She and her family have the rare Mississippi luxury of a basement, and like they usually have to do at least once every April, they huddled there. And prayed.
She said she didn't hear much other than wind and limbs breaking.
"When it was all over with, we were walking around to make sure everything was OK, and there was a piece of foam insulation in our yard," Herrington said. "We don't know how that got there."
A classmate of Brannan and Herrington from Enterprise High lost their home and briefly were without their pet python, which escaped. It's since been found. The classmate wasn't home, but her sister and a friend were there and needed stitches.
Herrington's mom teaches kindergarten, and one of her student's homes was destroyed. Brannan said their family knows an older couple who were hospitalized with fairly serious injuries.
"It's devastating seeing all the houses near us that destroyed," said Herrington.
Skipper and his family are living in a hotel for the next couple of weeks. He hasn't been able to get into his room to retrieve any of his possessions. The door to the room is wedged shut by the tree.
"It crushed all my stuff, the trophies and all," he said. "If I was in there for two more minutes, I would have been smashed, too."
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