A man’s medical records are on their way back home to Mississippi. They were discovered in Warren County after tornados ripped through the South last month.
“My husband was working in the back of our land,” said Viola resident Peggy Webster. “We’re making walking trails. We had a few trees fall during the storm and he was cleaning that area up. In the debris, he found someone’s medical records.”
While looking through the information, the records contained the name of the patient, address, phone number, dates and Social Security number.
“I had mowed the week before and it wasn’t there, so it must have been blown here during the tornados,” said Webster. “We tried to call the home number, but it was disconnected. We called the radiology center that was listed in the information and she said they had tornados come through there and the clinic where the information was held was completely demolished.”
The clinic was in Smithville, a town of 857 residents in northeast Mississippi and 222.7 miles from Viola, according to MapQuest. Most of Smithville was destroyed by what was registered by the Memphis National Weather Service as an EF5 tornado — the largest recordable tornado in the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
The twister’s speed was estimated at 205 mph, with the path of destruction 2.82 miles long and half a mile wide at one point. It damaged approximately 70 homes, seven businesses including the town hall, school, church and post office, and most of the trees. More than a dozen residents were confirmed dead.
“We have no way of knowing if he is still alive,” said Webster. “By the records, he was more than 60 years old. We just found it amazing that these records would travel 222 miles, that’s about four hours driving time.”
The medical records were mailed to the radiology clinic.