Although there was a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch out for Lauderdale County Friday afternoon, when the line of storms passed through many people say they were caught off guard.

At West Lauderdale Middle School, students were taken out of some classrooms just before the roof was taken off by heavy winds.

Principal Kevin Cheatham said he was proud of how cooperative his students were during the event.

"We were in the process of getting the students into the hallway when the storm came through," said Cheatham. "There was really no prior warning from anyone. We just had to go out and observe the storm and make our best decision from that."

Because there was roof damage done to the B Building, school officials had to make some adjustments to ensure that the students were safe when they returned to school this week.

"We have the roofing company on campus today. They are getting the rooms ready so that we can get back into them," said the principal. "We've had to have a temporary schedule today so that we can reroute the students for at least one or two days, but most of the damage should be fixed today, temporarily."

In addition to that building, there was also damage done to the athletic facilities on campus. The wind knocked over scoreboards, light poles and fences.

Crews have been working to get everything back up and running there as well. Despite some damage done to the campus, officials say they are grateful that no students were seriously hurt.

Elsewhere, Lauderdale Emergency Management Agency director David Sharp said just about every corner of the county was affected by the storm.

"The area where the majority of the major damage was was in the northern part of the county, primarily the northwest and north central part of the county," said Sharp.

The governor declared a state of emergency for Hinds, Lauderdale,
Leake, Madison, Neshoba, Newton, Scott, Smith, Rankin, Tippah, Warren
and Yazoo counties.

The numbers for east Mississippi:

Lauderdale County
95 homes damaged
2 businesses damaged
2 agriculture buildings damaged

Newton County
64 homes damaged
5 businesses damaged
2 injuries

Neshoba County
30 homes damaged
9 businesses damaged

Scott County
8 homes damaged