Arkansans headed to Mississippi to help with recovery

Local church crews join in Baptist relief efforts following eadly tornadoes

A Times Staff Report

news@theeveningtimes.com

Tornadoes have on occasion been referred to as “The Finger of God” for their destructive capabilities. West Memphis residents will always remember the deadly twister that hit their community back in 1987, as will Earle residents who witnessed the power of another tornado in 2008.

And such was the case over the weekend less than 200 miles to the south of Crittenden County in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, and elsewhere.

Help began pouring into one of the poorest regions of the U.S. after a deadly tornado tore a path of destruction for more than an hour across a long swath of Mississippi, even as furious new storms Sunday struck across the Deep South.

At least 25 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in Mississippi as the massive storm ripped through more than a halfdozen towns late Friday. A man was also killed in Alabama after his trailer home flipped over several times.

Among volunteers working Sunday at a staging area, where bottled water and other supplies were being readied for distribution were dozens of members of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Arkansas Disaster Relief Team, including several Crittenden County natives.

“As I speak, several of our members are in Mississippi helping with disaster relief there,” Marion First Baptist Church pastor Dr. James Nichols told his congregation Sunday morning.

“Pray for them and for all of those affected by this tragedy.

Sarch and recovery crews have spent the past two days busy with the daunting task of digging through flattened and battered homes, commercial buildings and municipal offices after hundreds of people were displaced.

The storm hit so quickly that the sheriff's department in Rolling Fork barely had time to set off sirens to warn the community of 2,000 residents, said Mayor Eldridge Walker.

President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration for Mississippi early Sunday, making federal funding available to hardest hit areas.

“Help is on the way,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said at a news conference with local, state and federal leaders.

Recovery efforts in Mississippi were underway even as the National Weather Service warned of a new risk of more severe weather Sunday — including high winds, large hail and possible tornadoes in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

A tornado touched down early Sunday in Troup County, Georgia, near the Alabama border, according to the Georgia Mutual Aid Group. Affected areas included the county seat of LaGrange, about 67 miles (108 kilometers) southwest of Atlanta About 100 buildings were damaged, with at least 30 uninhabitable, and five people suffered minor injuries, officials said.

Many roads, including Interstate Highway 85, were blocked by debris.

Two tigers briefly escaped from their enclosures at Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, Georgia, after the park sustained extensive tornado damage. On its Facebook page, the park said none of its employees or animals were hurt.

Outside of Rolling Fork, a tornado ripped apart whole subdivisions. The twister left only foundations and a few belongings — a toppled refrigerator, a dresser and nightstand, a bag of

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Christmas decorations, some clothing.

Following Biden’s declaration, federal funding will be available for recovery efforts in Mississippi’s Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe and Sharkey counties, including temporary housing, home repairs, loans covering uninsured property losses and other individual and business programs, the White House said in a statement.

The twister flattened entire blocks, obliterated houses, ripped a steeple off a church and toppled a municipal water tower.

Pastor Nichols happened to be in Mississippi visiting friends the night of the tornado. His mother was very close to the site of the disaster.

“We called her and she said she was ‘rattled but OK,’ when we talked to her,” said Nichols. “She said she heard it coming but didn’t have time to make it to the shelter across the street so she got in the tub with a helmet on.”

Nichols chuckled a bit at the thought of his mother with a helmet on in th bath tub but he said it was scary to think about how things could have been tragic.

“She was fortunate to have been spared major damage,” he said. “Her carport was hit, and she lost her shed. We went the next day and tried to help collect as much of her belongings as we could from the woods.”

Based on early data, the tornado received a preliminary EF-4 rating, the National Weather Service office in Jackson said in a tweet. An EF-4 tornado has top wind gusts between 166 mph and 200 mph (265 kph and 320 kph).

In Rolling Fork, the tornado reduced homes to piles of rubble and flipped cars on their sides. Other parts of the Deep South were digging out from damage caused by other suspected twisters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said 25 people were confirmed killed in Mississippi, 55 people were injured and 2,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. High winds, hail and strong storms were expected for parts of Alabama and Georgia on Sunday, the National Weather Service said.

The tornado that slammed into Rolling Fork tore across Mississippi for about 59 miles (95 kilometers) over a period that lasted more than one hour, the National Weather Service said in a preliminary report Sunday. The tornado was an estimated three-quarters of a mile wide at some points, according to the preliminary estimate.

The supercell that produced the deadly twister also appeared to produce tornadoes causing damage in northwest and north-central Alabama, said Brian Squitieri, a severe storms forecaster with the weather service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

Total cost of the storm in terms of human lives and property is still being tallied as relief and recovery continues.

File photo