from the Laurel Leader Call 4/27/2010 http://leadercall.com/local/x1687726092/Potential-severe-weather-threat-looms-for-weekend

Potential severe weather threat looms for weekend
Heavy rainfall threat also forecast

By Lance Chancellor Jones County EMA Public Information Officer
 Laurel Leader-Call

LAUREL — Jones County Emergency Management Agency Director Don McKinnon and staff at the Jones County Emergency Operations Center along with Jones County Fire Coordinator Dan McKenna participated in a Web-based National Weather Service briefing Monday afternoon.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Jackson discussed a potential severe weather threat for the entire State of Mississippi beginning Friday around noon and extending into Saturday.

While preliminary in nature, the threat may be as serious as this past weekend’s severe weather which impacted Mississippi with severe thunderstorms, high winds, hail and tornadoes all possible. In addition, a heavy rainfall event is forecast with total rainfall accumulations in the five inch range possible by Monday evening.

This is a developing weather situation for late this week but bears watching closely as the severe weather indices are aligning closely with the values from this past weekend’s severe weather and may impact the same areas. Jones County was under a Tornado Warning on Saturday for a period of time; however, no damage was reported from the tornado.

A NOAA weather radio which broadcasts emergency weather information is a proven lifesaver and is available from local retailers in the Pine Belt. In addition, Alert FM receivers are available which also broadcast severe weather alerts. Tornado warning sirens are designed to alert citizens who are outside their residence or business and may not be able to be heard inside homes or vehicles which offer barriers to the warning sound generated by sirens.