Devastating Tornadoes Hit Mississippi

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Abby Sonnier

Edited by Naomi Grant

“The community has been destroyed. And now we’ve got to put the pieces back together again,” -Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker

Visiting my hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana a week after Category 4 Hurricane Laura was overwhelming. The town where I had spent the first 18 years of my life was turned upside down— nothing was left untouched by the storm.

Though everyone was overwhelmed by the scale of destruction, the community came together. Neighbors stopped pulling tree limbs and insulation out of their living rooms to help one another make dinner on camp stoves or walk to the nearest aid station to get water for their cul-de-sac. The Cajun Navy brought in volunteers and supplies from across the state and from Mississippi and Texas to help. We shared meals from the churches left standing while someone from the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s social club popular in southwest Louisiana, sang folk songs and passed Miller High Life around the parking lot.

It felt impossible that we would ever be able to put our sleepy, bayou-side town back together, and two years later, it still feels that way sometimes. Even though Lake Charles is not one of the poorest areas of the state, we still have plenty of neighborhoods that look like a sea of blue tarps because FEMA funding has yet to come through to fix the roofs. Driving through many parts of town, there are plenty of abandoned homes and businesses, too far gone to be fixed but too expensive to demolish. A once-cherished state park five minutes down the road from my house has barely cleared a single trail in these two and a half years because so many cyprus, oak, and pine trees fell during the storm.

The devastation caused by Hurricane Laura in Southwest Louisiana pales in comparison to the images coming out of the South Delta Mississippi towns of Rolling Fork, Silver City, and others following the March 24 EF-4 tornado.

With over 25 people confirmed dead and hundreds displaced, this tornado marks the state’s deadliest in over 50 years. Additional tornadoes ripped through Arkansas and Tennessee on March 31, just one week afterward, killing 18. One particularly heartbreaking story is that of Dominique Green, who left her daughter, Aubrey, with her parents as she went to the hospital to give birth to her second child. Her parents were also watching three other grandchildren when the storm hit their Silver City mobile home. Aubrey died in the storm while her cousin, Kaleb, is still fighting for his life after sustaining a severe brain injury.

Queen’terica Jones tells of speeding across the Mississippi Delta with her sister as their car was being lifted and dropped by the wind to get to their mother’s home in Rolling Fork. Using cell phone lights as flashlights, they sifted through the debris only to find out they were too late. Her mother is survived by her six children, who describe her as a “beautiful soul… with a heart of gold.”

Even for those who were lucky in the storm, their new realities feel like a nightmare. Wonder Bolden, who survived the storm in her mobile home along with her daughter and granddaughter, remarked, “There is nothing left. There’s just the breeze that’s running, going through— just nothing.”

Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker echoed this, noting that his town of nearly 2,000 people has been wiped off the map.

The road to recovery will be long and difficult, but as Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said, “Homes, businesses…entire communities. Respond, recover, rebuild together— that is the mission.”

Jermaine Wells, neighbor of Lonnie and Melissa Pierce, who were killed when the truck landed on their house during the storm, talks about the destruction to his home, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Rolling Fork, Miss. (Julio Cortez/AP)

This recovery, however, cannot and will not be done by the South Delta region or Mississippi on its own.

Around 35% of residents in the impacted region live below the poverty line and lack access to phones or internet needed to apply for federal aid and other FEMA resources (which is not an easy process). Outside monetary help, boots on the ground are necessary to begin rebuilding.

Over the past 20 years or so, the infamous “Tornado Alley” that most associate with Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Texas has shifted east into Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and North Louisiana, largely due to climate change and its impact on atmospheric conditions across the mid-South. Infrastructure in these areas is not built to withstand tornadoes, with many people living in mobile homes and nearly everyone living without a basement or storm-safe shelter.

Because these regions are largely safe from hurricanes that cause much more devastation further south in hurricane-prone areas, they did not need to build structures resistant to 150+ mph winds. Additionally, some of these areas (Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, Shreveport, etc.) tend to be more densely populated and have more trees that could be taken down by tornado-force winds in comparison to the Plains states.

When Lake Charles was in the initial recovery stages, I remember a profound feeling that the rest of the country— minus our neighbors in Mississippi and Texas— forgot about us. We felt that people were happy to spend Mardi Gras or their Bachelorette weekends in New Orleans, but when the state really needed help, everyone turned a blind eye.

As a community, let’s come together to make sure that the people in the Mississippi Delta aren’t left to fend for themselves. I encourage you to donate to the organization listed below, which provides on-the-ground services and assistance in Washington County, Mississippi, one of the most impacted areas. If you can’t donate, spread the word.

Donate to Community Foundation of Washington County, select South Delta Disaster Recovery Fund.