Greg Flynn of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said Forrest County officials estimate that the tornado damaged several hundred homes.
Forrest County Sheriff Billy McGee says 10 or 15 people were injured by the tornado -- but none of the injuries was serious.
"Most of our injuries have been walking wounded," he said.
McGee says rescue workers were going house-to-house to check on people and make sure nobody was trapped.
Pictures posted on Facebook by WDAM in Hattiesburg showed rows of trees flattened in the Oak Grove area and damage to commercial buildings. Residents have reported the high school stadium heavily damaged.
The storm passed along Hardy Street, one of the city's main roadways.
"We had a tornado touch down. We have a lot of damage," said Kyle Hopkins, operations director for Forrest County emergency operations.
The university released a statement saying several buildings had been damaged but that no injuries were reported. Campus police have declared a state of emergency and asked anyone not on campus to stay away.
Cody Shook, 30, was in Petal on his way home to a pregnant girlfriend near Interstate 59 in Hattiesburg when he and a friend experienced the tornado, he told the Sun Herald Sunday night.
"I was thinking it was nothing serious. We'd had a couple of scares before," Shook said. "Then we encountered it on 4th Street. Literally the stop sign was ripped from the ground concrete and all, about 100 yards in front of us. "My friend was driving. We pulled into the first driveway we could," Shook said.
They watched the storm peel roofs from houses and snap what he estimated to be 80-year-old oak trees in front of them.
"Pieces of houses were flying around," he said. "It was very scary. It caused two grown men to hug after that and say I'm glad we're alright."
It skipped his home, but damaged homes two streets over on Berkshire Street, not far from Hardy Street, he said.
Jason Leviere, owner of Click Boutique, told the Sun Herald late Sunday that he had been shopping in west Hattiesburg at the Turtle Creek Mall when the sirens went off. At first he thought it might have been a drill because of the high wind and heavy rain. He returned home in downtown and experienced the tornado there. He said it sounded very much like a train. But his home and business appeared to be undamaged.
"It all happened pretty fast," he said. "It came out of nowhere."
He said a network of business owners were calling each other trying to assess the situation. Through that he learned that a neighborhood behind the Crescent City Grill on Hardy Street was damaged.
He said the first damage he heard about was in the Oak Grove community west of Hattiesburg and in the Lake Serene subdivision, then he believes the tornado moved along U.S. 98 toward the Hattiesburg business district, a high traffic area on Sundays, he said.
"It jumped the Caliente Grille and hit the USM campus," he said. "The university is just a mess.
"After USM, it headed downtown and hit two blocks from us," he said. At the corner of West 4th and Main streets, it destroyed a gas station.
"So there's a lot of gas fumes outside right now," he said at about 8:30 p.m. "They're asking people not to light candles, to please use flashlights.
"I'm at my business right now, because there are a lot of people walking the streets and there are police cars circling with spotlights," he said. "I think they're afraid of looting.
"I have to say, it's amazing already to see everyone come together as a community," he said. "The phone chain starts, everyone's checking on each other and springing into action."
Harrison and Jackson counties, as well as Stone, Wayne, Perry and George counties were under a tornado watch for much of the afternoon and evening on Sunday.
Flynn says the same twister apparently hit Marion and Lamar counties but did much less damage. He says storm damage also was reported in Lawrence County and a tornado touchdown in Wayne County, near Waynesboro.
Flynn says initial reports are that nearly 20 homes were hit hard in Marion County and several in Lamar County.He says thunderstorms stayed over the area, adding water damage to the wind damage.
Marion County emergency director Aaron Greer reported three injuries in the community of Pickwick, about seven miles south of Columbia. He said one person was taken to a hospital by ambulance, another by Triple-A, and the third person was not treated.
Greer says one mobile home was destroyed, three other structures have major damage and two or three have minor damage.
National Weather Service meteorologist Joanne Culin says there also have been reports of injuries in Marion County.
Mississippi's mobile command center has been sent to Hattiesburg, and all of MEMA's area coordinators from north of Interstate 20 have been sent to the counties with damage.
Gov. Phil Bryant said he planned to visit the storm-damaged areas today. Bryant declared a state of emergency later Sunday evening.
The National Weather Service says bad weather is likely to stretch into Fat Tuesday for southeast Louisiana. Jefferson Parish has canceled a Monday night parade.
Staff writer Karen Nelson contributed to this report.
Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/02/10/4460169/tornado-hits-heart-of-hattiesburg.html#storylink=cpy
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