The joy of staying alive after the passage of a deadly tornado in Mississippi

The brick house was pulverized. All that remains of her is the floor strewn with personal items, a pink backpack, a miraculously standing shampoo bottle.

After the violent tornado that devastated Rolling Forkin mississippithe inhabitants of this town are just realizing how their lives will change.

Look: Mississippi braces for new storms after tornadoes kill 25

On this hot and sunny Sunday, under a blue sky although new storms are predicted, they began to return to the town that offers a landscape of gutted houses and fallen trees.

To assess the damage and salvage belongings, and also because this debris is all that remains of their lives before Friday night, when a tornado killed at least 25 people across this southern state, at least 13 of them in Rolling Fork, which has just 2,000 inhabitants.

“Twenty years of my life are gone in a flash”says Shirley Stamps, 58, in front of her bed covered in dust and pieces of wood. “But praise God, praise God,” she adds fervently. “We are here, we are alive.”

Aerial view of a destroyed neighborhood in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, after a tornado hit the area. (CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP /)

Hell

That night, she told AFP, she had just finished dinner with her family and was about to put on her nightgown when she heard a worrying wind. The noise increased, the threat became more precise.

Her granddaughter was taking a bath, and Shirley Stamps knocked on the door for the whole family to take refuge in the bathroom, the safest room in the house.

On Sunday, except for part of the facade, the bathroom was the only room in the house that was left standing.

Across the street, a grim-looking Shakeria Brown inspects her car, crushed by a tree. His house almost collapsed.

The remains of a house and cars are entangled in tree branches in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. (CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP /)

“I was sitting on the sofa with my eight-month-old daughter when the windows started shaking,” the 26-year-old said. Then they “exploded”, “the roof gave way on me and it started to rain”.

Shakeria covered her head with a blanket to try to keep her baby warm, until a neighbor managed to get her out of that hell. For now, she is staying with friends. But she will have to find a solution, because “it will take forever” to clear and clean the area. “The owner is not going to rebuild,” she says.

The latter, who owns several houses in this predominantly black and low-income neighborhood, confirms this.

“Nothing”

“What can we do?”asks an African American who prefers to remain anonymous, observing the devastation with a stoic air.

The insurance will not be enough for reconstruction in this region, “one of the poorest in the United States,” he says. Unless the federal state intervenes, “it will be cleaned up and then it will be empty,” he concludes.

A damaged home is seen in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, after a tornado hit the area. (CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP /)

Kimberly Berry46, works in a fish processing plant and lives between Rolling Fork and Silver City, another town devastated by the tornado.

His house was swept away by the storm, taking away the walls and roof, leaving only a wooden floor, a chest of drawers, a bathtub, and various personal belongings scattered about.

The tornado was selective. Throughout several kilometers, some areas remained intact, and a few meters the devastation.

Insurance doesn’t cover anything, he told AFP, because he built in a floodplain. So you plan to buy a motor home.

Sitting under an umbrella with her sisters while someone hands out bottles of water and sandwiches, they send a message to the federal government. “We need help,” says Dorthy Berry, 65.

“Do not be sad”throws this teacher at a journalist who barely had time to take refuge in a church before the disaster. “I am filled with gratitude. We’re still alive, that’s all that matters.”

Source: Elcomercio