The Tallahatchie County Safe Room will be open to the public beginning about 3 Friday afternoon, a few hours before Winter Storm Fern is forecast to begin unleashing wintry precipitation.
The county and much of North Mississippi is under an Ice Storm Warning from 6 p.m. Friday until 6 p.m. Sunday.
"This thing is supposed to start coming in here tomorrow afternoon late, and anybody who wants to come in to the Safe Room, we'll have it open," said Thad Roberts, director of the Tallahatchie County Emergency Management Agency (TCEMA).
While the official standing-room-only capacity of the Safe Room is 444 people, there are limited seating accommodations.
"We've got 100 chairs that they can sit down in, or, if they prefer, they can sit on the floor," Roberts said.
While food is not provided, Roberts said anyone who wants to bring their own snacks or food is welcome to do so as long as they clean up after themselves.
"If they bring some food in, we've got some tables around that they can use to eat whatever they're eating and then clean up their stuff," he noted.
Roberts said drinking water will be available or people may bring their own.
The building should provide a warm, comfortable atmosphere even in the case of a power outage around town, he added, noting, "We've got a good generator that will cover the building without any problem."
The Tallahatchie County Sheriff's Office will provide security, Roberts noted.
No set schedule is in place for continued operation of the Safe Room, he said.
"We're going to take it day by day. It depends on the weather," he explained. "Right now, everybody is guessing. Even the weather people are guessing, and we're trying to [plan] based on what they are putting out, and we're trying to read between the lines, too. ... We hope that this thing goes around us."
If anyone has any questions about the Safe Room schedule, Roberts said they may call the TCEMA office at 662-647-2540 or his cell at 662-647-7012.
Charleston Mayor Sedrick Smith said late Thursday that the city does not plan to open a public shelter at the former National Guard armory, owned by the city, due to the lack of a generator to heat the building.
"We wish we could," he noted, "but people would not be any better off there."
Along with the winter storm, an arctic blast is forecast to drop nighttime low temperatures into the teens and even the single digits in coming days.
