Jackson Free Press

Governor Haley Barbour declared a State of Emergency today for the severe weather system that affected parts of the state late Wednesday afternoon and today, and for the threat of additional storms and damage due to forecasted storms over the next several days.

The State of Emergency will allow state resources to be used throughout the affected areas to assist local governments as they respond to this disaster, said MEMA Director Mike Womack.

The following are updated damage reports received by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency's State Emergency Operations Center:

• Adams: Numerous trees and power lines down county wide.
• Amite: Trees and power lines down and wide spread power outages.
• Jasper: Three homes damaged, one injury.
• Jones: Five homes damaged, three injuries.
• Lauderdale: Two homes major damage, nine homes minor damage, one business destroyed, one business minor damage.
• Lawrence: Three homes damaged.
• Lincoln: Trees and power lines down.
• Madison: Trees and power lines down.
• Simpson: 60 homes damaged, 20 injuries; 13 patients transported to Magee General, four patients transported to Simpson General, three patients taken to UMC.

Emergency crews are doing additional surveys for damage. MEMA will continue to provide updates as they become available.

[verbatim from The Salvation Army]

After several tornados ripped through parts of Madison and Simpson counties, The Salvation Army Jackson Corps is responding in force. Three state of the art mobile canteens are being deployed to McGee to help residents cope and start the recovery process.

"We are just going to roam the streets, looking for people in need." Major John Showers says, "We can feed up to 2000 people a day from each canteen, so we are packed and ready to go with food, water and hygiene supplies."

If anyone would like to help in the effort, donations of bottled water, hygiene products and of course monetary donations are appreciated. Donations can be brought to The Salvation Army at 110 Presto Lane, Jackson, MS.

Previous Comments

ID

145131

Comment

The American Red Cross has opened a shelter in Magee for anyone affected by the overnight storms at the First Baptist Church, 222 North 1st Street.

Author

Ronni_Mott

Date

2009-03-26T11:17:12-06:00