Even while state officials continued to adjust the death count from Friday’s destructive nighttime tornadoes in parts of Mississippi, some people in Tallahatchie County were busy organizing relief efforts.
As of Tuesday, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported 21 storm-related fatalities and dozens of injuries while saying the National Weather Service confirmed a total of seven tornadoes touched down.
Thirteen of the deaths occurred in Sharkey County, where an EF-4 tornado virtually flattened the city of Rolling Fork before moving on to claim three more lives and inflict heavy damage in the nearby Humphreys County town of Silver City.
Three fatalities were reported in Carroll County and two in Monroe County, caused by a pair of EF-3 tornadoes. Four EF-1 twisters were identified elsewhere in the state.
Tuesday reports showed a total of 1,894 residential homes in eight counties sustained some type of damage, with the severity ranging from affected to destroyed.
Images from Rolling Fork show that city was particularly hard-hit, swaths of real estate razed to the ground.
That city is getting a lot of the attention, with many relief efforts aimed there.
Earlier this week, Sayle Oil Co. parked a 20-foot-long box truck on the corner of their Sayle Service Center lot in Charleston, where the public was encouraged to drop off items for storm victims.
Sayle Vice President Jimmie Stennett said the company initially planned to send 168 cases of water to Rolling Fork, then decided to expand the effort publicly Monday and Tuesday to allow for more donations.
“It’s been great to see everybody in the community come together and fill the truck up,” he said. Among the donated items were nonperishable foods, cleaning supplies, diapers, paper products, dog food and more.
“There’s probably at least 50 grocery sacks piled in there right now,” Stennett noted late Monday.
Midday Tuesday, the Sayle truck rolled out of Charleston en route to Rolling Fork.
“We hope to send another truck in a week or so,” Stennett added, saying it might go to a different town. “Anything we can do to help. It could have been us just as easily.”
That sentiment also was shared by Tallahatchie County Sheriff Jimmy Fly, whose office is joining forces with several other entities to gather and transport necessities to some of the impacted areas.
The Diabetic Shoppe, a Charleston diabetic supply and medical equipment business, donated 578 pairs of shoes and wants to give free diabetic testing supplies — a meter, enough strips for 50 tests, lancets and the lancet device — to storm victims who have lost their own.
Diabetic Shoppe President Robert Salmon said the first thing he asked himself after learning of the devastation was, “Have we got anything that somebody might could really use.”
The Sheriff’s Office took the 10 pallets of shoes, all sorted by gender and size, to Rolling Fork Wednesday in an enclosed 20-foot trailer owned by Tallahatchie County Emergency Management.
Getting diabetic supplies to those who need them would involve some careful thought and planning, Salmon noted.
“We’re going to send what they need if somebody can get the information to us and where to send it,” he said. “The hard part is logistics. How do we get the word out to people who are diabetic and don’t have anything to test with that we are willing to do this? Who can coordinate it? They haven’t got a place for us to mail it to, because they haven’t got a home.”
Salmon said his company has two salespeople in the Rolling Fork area who will be attempting to spread the word.
“We’re going to try to accommodate everybody we can,” he noted.
Fly said the jails in Charleston and Sumner are collection points for anyone who wants to drop off some items for storm victims.
The James C. Kennedy Wellness Center of Tallahatchie General Hospital is accepting donations of physical goods, including bottled water, canned goods, baby formula, personal hygiene items (toothpaste/brushes, diapers, baby wipes, feminine products, etc.), paper towels and toilet paper, cleaning supplies (bleach, household cleaners, laundry detergent, etc.), flashlights and batteries, pet food and tarps. The Sheriff’s Office will utilize the EMA trailer to transport those donations, Fly explained.
“We will get it down to wherever it needs to go, whether it be Rolling Fork or one of the other impacted areas,” the sheriff said.
TGH and the TGH Medical Foundation are accepting monetary donations at the Wellness Center. Those funds will be used to purchase relief items, said Fly. Make checks payable to TGH Medical Foundation, and on the “memo” or “for” line, write “Donation, tornado relief.” For more information, call 662-625-7105.
The Tallahatchie County Coroner’s Office is collecting donations that Ginger Smith Meriwether said will be delivered Friday.
Fly said all contributions will be appreciated.
“It makes you proud to see everybody pulling together to help others, even though they’re not here in Tallahatchie County,” he noted. “I’m just glad to be able to help. People always help us, so it’s nice to help someone else.”
