Situation Awareness: Monday, March 27, 2023 Mississippi Tornadoe.

Devastating storms and at least one large tornado (photo below) ripped through rural Mississippi on Friday night leaving at least 26 people dead, dozens injured and first responders racing against time to rescue people from the rubble. The tornado’s death toll now ranks as the highest in Mississippi this century and the worst in over 50 years.

As you can see from the image below, the tornado landed in Rolling Fork, MS around 8:00pm CT Friday night and then remained on the ground for an hour cutting a path of devastation 100 miles long and a mile wide, and lofting debris 30,000 feet into the air.

In addition to Rolling Fork, the towns of Silver City, Black Hawk, Winona, and Amory suffered extensive damage. Along this terrible track, few buildings remained unaffected, many are completely demolished. In addition, many other homes and structures will require extensive repairs.

An aerial view of destroyed homes in Rolling Fork, Miss., on Saturday. (Cheney Orr/Reuters)

Rolling Fork, as seen in the above photo, has a majority African American population of about 2,000 people, with approximately 20% of residents living below the poverty line and 21% living in mobile homes, making them especially vulnerable to extreme weather. As you can see from the Census summaries below, the other affected towns in the Mississippi Delta are similarly situated. In the words of the mayor of Rolling Fork, Eldridge Walker, “Families are affected, homes are torn up, families are without a place to live, children are hungry this morning, no clothes.”

Click the image below for video of the destruction the tornado wrought in Amory, MS.

Thanks to early warnings from the National Weather Service we were ready for these tornadoes—as the Washington Post reported:

	Live updates: Tornadoes kill 26 across Mississippi, Alabama; state of emergency issued The Mississippi towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City were significantly affected, while deaths and serious damage have been reported in the state. www.washingtonpost.com

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If all disasters are local. What are the local emergency management, Counties, and States doing? Eyes on Mississippi.

Thoughts of performance of local emergency management offices\agencies, counties, and States performance during a major crisis (natural, man-made, and especially environmental disasters).

Are States immediately declaring a disaster before, and during a crisis for federal assistance from FEMA?

Have local, and States budgeted for the risks, vulnerabilities, and threats to their constituents?

Or, is FEMA the point of blame for any failures that are incurred?

Does FEMA bring the equity that the States lack in serving their 'whole community'?

Many more questions that communities must answer of their local EM and State offices\agencies.

BEMA International

FEMA Supports Mississippi in Response to Devastating Tornadoes March 28, 2023

Key words.... 'Support Mississippi'.

Questions:

Where is the Governor?
Other Elected Officials of the community?
What is the State of Mississippi doing in this response to communities?

BEMA International

FEMA Supports Mississippi in Response to Devastating Tornadoes

On March 26, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell visited the devastated areas of Mississippi following Friday’s deadly tornadoes.

President Biden approved Mississippi’s request for an expedited major disaster declaration, making federal disaster assistance available to supplement recovery efforts. The declaration authorizes federal assistance to disaster survivors in Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe and Sharkey counties. This assistance may include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, crisis counseling, low-interest loans and other programs to help recovery efforts.

Visit FEMA.gov to read more.

FEMA Administrator Criswell

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and other emergency management officials speak with a survivor of the devastating tornadoes that impacted Mississippi.

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Eyes on Mississippi. Disaster Philanthropy. How do you support communities that have lost everything? Webinar Thurs, March 30th

Poor. Black. Rural. And gone. Most of the communities hit by tornadoes over the weekend share these characteristics. They are also strong, resilient and proud, and urgently need philanthropic support.

We are hosting a webinar, on Thursday, March 30 at 2 p.m. ET, to highlight the recent storms in multiple states, including Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, that produced devastating tornadoes. The loss of life was highest in Mississippi, where an EF-4 tornado destroyed multiple communities.

Assistant Vice President in the Division of Academic & Strategic Collaborations at Texas A&M University, Dr. John T. Cooper, Jr., will moderate the discussion.

During the webinar, we will look at the impact of a catastrophic disaster in communities that were already lacking a strong social safety net and infrastructure. What does rebuilding look like when you’re starting nearly from scratch? How do you support communities that have lost everything?

Please register and join us.

My best,

Tanya

PS: Automatic closed captioning will be available via Zoom during the webinar. The fully captioned webinar recording will be emailed to everyone who registered.

Tanya Gulliver-Garcia |She/her/hers | Based in New Orleans, LA

Director of Learning and Partnerships