A deadly tornado leaves parts of Mississippi reeling

WAMU 88.5

Published March 27, 2023 at 9:13 AM EDT

Cornelius Williams looks at what remains of the home in which he grew up after it was hit on Friday evening by an EF-4 tornado in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

The tornadoes that hit parts of Mississippi this weekend turned out to be some of the deadliest the state has ever seen.

At least 25 people were killed. One person died in neighboring Alabama. Parts of western Mississippi are now unrecognizable.And further bad weather has hampered rescue efforts.

Help has started to arrive. On Sunday, President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration for Mississippi. Federal funds are now available for recovery efforts including temporary housing, home repairs, loans covering uninsured property losses, and other individual and business programs

Sharkey and Humphreys, are among the most sparsely populated in the state, with only a few thousand residents in communities scattered across wide expanses of cotton, corn, and soybean fields. Sharkey’s poverty rate is 35 percent, and Humphreys’ is thirty-three percent.

We’ll look at the recovery efforts and ask what aid is most needed by communities hardest hit.