No stranger to weather related disasters, Sunflower County businesses and residents picked up the clarion call for help when tornados ravaged neighboring and nearby communities.
Rolling Fork and Silver City were the focus of Sunflower County-based first responders as well as citizens and business owners across the Delta.
Mitch Ramage, Sunflower County EMA director/fire coordinator, got the call Friday night and headed out with his strike team.
“We went to Silver City upon request of the Humphreys County EMA director,” Ramage said. “Three or four set up a triage area to assist the medical team already there. The rest of us formed two teams and went into the affected area and performed search and rescue.”
The teams searched and marked homes and buildings throughout the night. On Saturday, Ramage returned and assisted with damage assessment. There were EMA directors from several other counties helping as well.
“We’ll just wait to see if they need us in the next few days. They have requested teams for firefighting operations in Rolling Fork. We did get a team to go with an apparatus if need be,” Ramage said. “But they are covered at least through the weekend. If they request another week of help then we’ll have another team ready to go.”
Ramage saw damage from total losses to homes with just the roofs torn off. Damage to gas and electrical lines were top priority.
“There were propane tanks that were wide open with the valve broken. You just had to let it bleed out. Natural gas lines have to have the main cut off by the gas company. Power lines were down everywhere and you have to either go around trees or over trees,” he said.
Southern Grillers has been on the ground with food for victims and first responders.
He noted that Sunflower County residents have dug deep to help.
“They have come together to get supplies – water, Gatorade, food, clothes, toiletries – I don’t know who all has done that but we’ve had several citizens call,” he said.
One of the EMA personnel included Jim Whitfield, Deputy Director/Deputy Fire Coordinator at Sunflower County, MS Emergency Management Agency, who before he went out to help those in need, was getting text messages from a special group of folks.
“YNKY-72 families have been contacting us asking, ‘Are y’all ok? We just want to check on y’all and make sure you’re ok,’” Whitfield said.
With that blessing in his pocket and stored in his heart, Whitfield headed out to take on whatever the tornado had laid in his path.
“We got down there and performed primary and secondary searches and marked those buildings,” Whitfield said.
At one point, they mobilized in a partially damaged building to gather injured persons for medical help.
He’s also been helping with the donation end of things but asks that folks work through an entity that is already set up to handle donations. And with water, clothing and other needed materials flowing in, monetary donations can do a greater good for the hurting community, he said.
“Volunteer Mississippi is a great resource for folks that want to help,” he said.
The website, volunteermississippi.org has links for volunteers to sign up and also a section to ask for help. Local Facebook sites include the Silver City MS Update & Recovery page, the Assistance for Victims of Rolling Fork, MS Tornado page and Needs For Rolling Fork page.
Tracy Fratesi, second from left, with a group of volunteers who drove to Rolling Fork to help.
Several drop off spots have been set up with lists of official needs for the affected areas.
Kim Maxey, co-owner of 82 Outlet, has been helping collect the needed items.
“We have people bringing in the things you don’t always think about – bug spray and sunscreen, toothbrushes and toothpaste. You don’t think about stuff like that until you go reach for it and don’t have it,” Maxey said.
With simple amenities and services shut down, Silver City and Rolling Fork have become a food truck haven for the afflicted. Everyone from Lost Pizza to Sookie’s Catering to Southern Grillers and more have set up camp to cook and feed anyone and everyone affected and the workers whose job it is to help pick up the pieces.
“My partner, Roger Anthony, had made three loads on Saturday, another one today and working on more. He’s over there helping cook. All the lineman and the AT&T workers and volunteers need food. You can’t go grab a hamburger someplace. Nothing is there,” Maxey said.
Preston Lott, co-owner of Lost Pizza, saw the damage from his home in Florida and knew what he needed to do for his Delta home.
“I was at our office in Florida Saturday morning and someone sent some pictures in a text message group I’m in,” Lott said. “I went home talked to my wife, Jade Lott about it. She said, ‘Let’s get packed.’”
Tracy Fratesi, second from left, with a group of volunteers who drove to Rolling Fork to help.
After lining up some babysitting they made the seven-and-half-hour drive home with the Lost Pizza food trailer. First set up in Rolling Fork, they fed as many as they could and will then restock and head to Silver City.
Bryant Kimbrough of Kimbrough Trucking LLC in Indianola has been helping on different sides of the volunteer equation. First, helping find and load needed emergency supplies at his trucking firm, and second, as a cook with Southern Grillers.
“We prepared food and fed about 800 people till we ran out of food,” Kimbrough said. “At our transport we have a truck and trailer staged where people have been dropping off things to donate. I have to get with the emergency management coordinators in both Sharkey and Humphreys counties to set up the drop. Hopefully, we’ll get that done between Saturday and Sunday. We can even go pick up stuff if needed.”
Kimbrough’s business is located at 1319 Hwy 82 East in Indianola and items can be dropped off there from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Please contact 662-577-6981 for further questions.
Sunflower County resident and Rolling Fork native Tracy Fratesi previously worked as the elected tax collector in Sharkey County. She pretty much knows every resident there by name. Helping in any way to rebuild and support her home, Fratesi has been there each day since the disaster.
“It’s a little harder when it’s your community. It’s the people you know and love who have lost loved ones and homes and livelihood and being that shoulder to cry on and hug them,” Fratesi said. “I went to that school (Sharkey Issaquena) and my kids went to that school (a main staging area in Rolling Fork).”
Fratesi has been helping with families who were moved to Greenville-area hotels and having them looked after. One family told their story to Fratesi.
“A grandmother who lived in a mobile home survived the storm. It didn’t hit directly where she lived but she’s so thankful. She had friends who died in the storm. Her husband was able to find a generator and there were 20 people staying in her mobile home but Sunday the generator malfunctioned and caught fire. With only a few people in the home, everyone was rescued when men from the Baptist Church came over to help,” Fratesi said.
She noted the grandmother still said, “I’m so blessed. I am so blessed.”
“The attitude of these people who have lost everything is amazing,” she said.
Strong arms, huge hearts – the Mississippi Delta coming together for all in need.
