NWS determines Delta city hit by EF-1 tornado

CLEVELAND — The National Weather Service has determined a tornado caused damage to homes and business in Bolivar County.

Between the hours of 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. last Sunday, the weather service had received multiple reports of grounded tornados around the area. These reports came from Benoit, Boyle and the Stanton subdivision within Cleveland.

The weather service tells The Bolivar Commercial it had determined that an EF-1 tornado touched down in the Stanton subdivision. Forecasters say winds reached in excess of 100 mph during that tornado and that was followed by a period of straight-line wind with speeds of roughly 70 mph over much of the area.

One person suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Emergency management director Bill Quinton says there were reports of trees down, structural damages and utility outages from all over the county.

The Walmart and Sears stores in Cleveland received the worst structural damage during the storm along with homes in the Stanton subdivision.

At Walmart, the Auto Center, located toward the rear of the store, was hit causing management to close operations until repairs can be made. The rest of Walmart continued to operate as normal.

At Sears the entire front wall of the store was ripped from the building and lay in the parking lot. Customers were being let in a side door. There was no damage inside the building.