By Staff
FLOODED AGAIN WMOX radio announcer Jim Myrick stands at the front door of the station, surrounded by water, while station manager Bill Smith drives through the flooded driveway in his truck. The station, close to the Sowashee Creek dam, was forced to go off the air Friday at 6 a.m. when 5 inches of water washed into the building and Smith turned the power off. This is the second time this month the station was forced off the air by flooding even heavier rains earlier this month brought a foot of water into the station. Photo by Carisa McCain / The Meridian Star.
By Penny Randall / staff writer
April 26, 2003
By 9 a.m. Friday, six inches of water rippled on the floor inside the studios of radio station WMOX on Highway 11 &80. But station officials said the flood, the second in as many weeks to hit the station, could have been much worse.
The rains that passed through Lauderdale County Thursday didn't produce flooding as bad as the April 6-7 torrential storms that left the station surrounded by a foot of water and caused it to be off the air for almost three days.
The low-lying land where the station sits was among several areas of Lauderdale County where flooding conditions persisted on Friday.
WMOX employees had already removed carpeting and furniture damaged from previous flooding, so damage this time was minimal, according to station manager Bill Smith. But it still caused the station to be off-the-air for several hours Friday.
A new control board and phone system the old ones were damaged by the previous flood were due to be installed Thursday night, but, fortunately as it turned out, an engineer from Jackson postponed his trip because of the weather.
Meanwhile, students in Lauderdale County public schools got a day off Friday as many roads were impassable due to high water.
Lauderdale County Superintendent of Education David Little said he received a call from Lauderdale County Emergency Management Director Clarence Butler at 6 p.m. Thursday warning him about the possibility of flooding in the county.
Little said he just wanted to play it safe and dismiss school on Friday, but classes will resume on Monday.
On the business scene, Taylor Rental of Meridian experienced not a flood of rain Friday but a flood of customers wanting any piece of equipment that could help them clean up.