Slumber Party for Scouts Ends in Nightmare

Justin Smith and two of his Cub Scout buddies were up late enjoying a weekend sleep-over when his mother told them a storm was coming. Seconds later, a tornado struck, killing the boys and Justin’s father.

All that remained Sunday where the house had been was two cars parked side by side in what used to be the garage.

“It came in like 10 freight trains and totally wiped out everything in its path,” Constable Martin Mann said of the tornado, which struck around midnight.

Storms killed 18 people, 10 in and around Brandon.

Mann spent about seven hours searching for the bodies of 7-year-old Justin and his visiting friends, brothers Jeremy Chaz Blackwell Warrington, 7, and Joseph Lee Warrington, 10.

About 100 people searched nearby woods during the night for the young victims. Volunteers poked through brush strewn with stuffed animals, Nintendo games and clothes. Firefighters probed the water in a neighbor’s pool.

Neighbors, including many children, watched the search, hugging and crying.

“I’ve got to go home and tell my 7 1/2-year-old and my 4th-grader that their friends are dead,” said Coleen Statum, with tears streaming down her face.

“It’s just horrifying,” said Janet Bankston, an aunt of the Warrington boys.

Bankston said Justin’s mother was calling for the children and her husband to come downstairs when the tornado hit. Cecilia Ann Smith, who was standing on the stairs, suffered minor injuries.

Neighboring homes in the upscale Easthaven area of Brandon were demolished or badly damaged. Blocks away, the Warrington boys’ home was unharmed.

After daylight, volunteers wrapped Bankston in a sleeping bag while she sat crying in a driveway as rescuers carried a small body wrapped in an orange blanket from a wooded area.

A neighbor, surveying damage around his own home, discovered the body of one of the boys, witnesses said. The body of the third boy was found in a tall tree about a quarter mile away.

Damage Area

Thunderstorms and tornadoes raged across the South and Central United States. Especially hard hit was the area in and around Brandon, Miss., where 10 people died.