Poverty adds to the challenges of recovering from a massive storm that tore through the southern US state of Mississippi late last week, killing at least 25 people and destroying entire neighborhoods.
A tornado destroyed the modest one-story home that Kimberly Berry shared with her two daughters on the plains of the Mississippi Delta, leaving only the foundation and a few random belongings: an overturned refrigerator, a matching dresser and nightstand, a bag of Christmas decorations and some clothes. .
During friday stormBerry and her 12-year-old daughter huddled together and prayed in a nearby church that was barely damaged while her 25-year-old daughter survived in the hard-hit town of Rolling Fork, 15 miles (24 km) away.
Berry, 46, shook her head as she looked at the remains of her material possessions. She said that she is grateful that she and her children are still alive.
I can take all this back. It’s nothing,” said Berry, who works as a supervisor at a catfish farming and processing operation. “I’m not going to get depressed about it.”
Search and rescue workers on Sunday inspected the damage of vandalized houses, crushed buildings and wrecked cars in Rolling Fork, which was destroyed by the storm.
“My community is gone,” Mayor Eldridge Walker told CNN.
The devastation here in Rolling Fork is heartbreaking.
Grateful to our federal partners for being here on the ground to see the impact of this tornado.
The character and generosity of Mississippians are on full display with the countless volunteers and donations offered. pic.twitter.com/rK4SmD8AVT
— Governor Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) March 26, 2023
US President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration for Mississippi on Sunday, freeing up federal assistance to help communities rebuild.
“Grateful to our federal partners for being here on the ground to see the impact of this tornado,” Governor Tate Reeves wrote on Twitter. “The character and generosity of Mississippians are on full display with the countless volunteers and donations offered.”
But many people across the state face an uncertain future. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the country, and the largely black Delta region has long been one of the poorest parts of Mississippi, a place where many people work for wages in agriculture-related jobs.
Two of the counties hit by the tornado, Sharkey and Humphreys, are among the least populated in the state with only a few thousand residents in communities scattered across wide tracts of cotton, corn and soybean fields.
Sharkey’s poverty rate is 35 percent and Humphreys’ is 33 percent, compared to about 19 percent for Mississippi and less than 12 percent for the entire country.
“It’s going to be a long road to recovery, trying to rebuild and get over the devastation,” said Wayne Williams, who teaches construction skills at a vocational education center in Rolling Fork, as people across the city hammered blue tarps on damaged roofs and used chainsaws to cut downed trees.
A notoriously difficult weather phenomenon to predict, tornadoes are relatively common in the US, especially in the central and southern parts of the country.
The National Weather Service gave Friday’s tornado, which left a trail of havoc more than 100 miles (160 km) long across the state, a rating of four out of five on the Enhanced Fujita scale with winds up to 320 kilometers per hour (200 miles). per hour).
Dozens of people have been injured and authorities say the death toll could rise.
Severe weather also killed a man in Alabama when he became pinned under an overturned trailer, the Morgan County sheriff’s office said.
Volunteers have arrived from surrounding towns, including Lauren Hoda, who traveled 70 miles (112 km) to help. He spent Saturday night in Rolling Fork, bringing donations of water, food, canned goods, diapers, wipes, medicine and toothpaste from collection points.
Similar destruction plagued Silver City, hit by tornadoes, where residents were seen salvaging what they could from destroyed homes.
Berry spent the weekend with friends and family sorting through salvageable items at her destroyed home near a two-lane highway that cuts through farmland.
She said she walked to the church before the tornado hit because her sister called her Friday night and said frantically that TV meteorologists had warned her that a life-threatening storm was coming. Berry said that as the storm rumbled and howled overhead, she tried to ignore the noise.
“That’s the only thing that was stuck in my head, pray, pray and cry out to God,” he said Saturday. “I heard nothing but my own prayer and God answering my prayer. I mean, I can get another house, other furniture. But literally saving my life, I’m grateful.”
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