The Nation - News from May 10, 1989

Fierce thunderstorms whipped the Mississippi Delta, battering the area with high winds. Thunderstorms and hailstorms also socked the Carolinas, Georgia, the Ohio Valley and Oklahoma, the weather service said. Mississippi’s storms spread to Louisiana by late morning, pelting the towns of Mira and Benton with golfball-sized hail. The weather service clocked winds at Mira at 62 m.p.h. At the state prison in Parchman, Miss., a corrections officer suffered a broken leg when the watchtower she was in collapsed in high winds, officials said. A second guard suffered a minor injury. About 80 staff homes and three mobile homes were damaged.