The hometown of former NFL quarterback Brett Favre endured a tornado over the weekend. The storm missed Favre’s property in Hattiesburg, Mississippi by less than a mile, and he’s surprised that the tornado resulted in no fatalities.
“Nobody was killed!'' Favre told Jon Saraceno of USA Today. “Look, everybody here is scratching their heads -- ‘Can you believe it?’ Amazin’.”
Favre said he had just returned to his home with his 13-year-old from Southern Mississippi University when the storm hit the Southern Miss campus.
Where the tornado started, as the crow flies, was probably a half-mile to one mile straight east of my property,’' Favre said. “Then it just [veered] and crossed the main highway in Hattiesburg before heading to Southern Miss. You never hear of a college getting hit with a true tornado. The good Lord’s looking out [because] the students were gone for Mardi Gras break.
“It’s kind of one of those things down here. I don’t want to say we overlook it but there are tornado warnings and bad weather all the time. To say that it was black and windy — that could be any day. At times, you just take it for granted.’'
Extensive damage was done at Oak Grove High School, where Favre notoriously worked out during his various retirements. The athletic facilities there were “wiped out.”
“They’re gone now, just a mangled mess,’' Favre said. “The baseball field is just destroyed. [The community of Oak Grove] was hit the hardest. We have nothing.”
Favre’s property was spared. “This time, for whatever reason, we didn’t have a limb down,” Favre said.