VOLUME FORK, Mississippi ( Associated Press) — A large tornado destroyed the modest home Kimberly Berry shared with her two daughters in the lowlands of the Mississippi Delta region, leaving only the foundation and some furniture: an overturned refrigerator, a matching chest. blankets and nightstands, a bag of Christmas ornaments and some clothes.
During Friday’s attack, Berry and her 12-year-old daughter huddled and prayed at a nearby church that was barely damaged, while her 25-year-old daughter survived in the town of Rolling Fork, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) away.
Berry shook her head as she looked at the remains of the material. She says she is grateful that she and her children are still alive.
“I can accept all of this. It’s nothing,” said Berry, 46, who works in catfish farming and is in charge of processing in the county. “I’m not getting depressed.”
Like many people in this financial sector, the future is uncertain. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the United States, and the Delta region, the majority of whose population is black, has long been among the poorest parts of the state, a place where many people work every day in agricultural businesses.
The two counties that were hit by the tornado, Sharkey and Humphreys, were among the rarest in the state, with a few thousand residents in communities scattered across vast tracts of cotton, corn and soybean fields.
Sharkey’s poverty rate is 35% and Humphreys’ 33%, compared to 19% for Mississippi and less than 12% for the United States as a whole.
“It’s going to be a long road to recovery, trying to rebuild and overcome the devastation,” Wayne Williams, who teaches construction skills at the Rolling Fork vocational training center, said Sunday as people from across the city placed blue tarps on damaged roofs and used chainsaws to cut down trees. .
Pollucius caused 25 deaths and dozens of injuries in Mississippi. It destroyed many homes and businesses in Rolling Fork and the nearby town of Silver, leaving piles of wood, bricks, and twisted metal.
