For every dark cloud, there is a silver lining. It may sound trite to reference that adage so soon after Friday’s killer tornadoes, but it still seems apt.
A hour or two of death and destruction has been met by days — and we would hope weeks and months — of an outpouring of help and support to those impacted by the tornadoes. It’s a testimony of the basic goodness in human nature, exemplified no better than here in Mississippi, that the initial reaction of people is to help when disaster hits their fellow man and woman.
For 170 or so miles, a supercell — estimated to be unleashing top winds of nearly 200 mph — turned Friday’s stormy darkness into a nightmare for small towns and communities from Rolling Fork to Amory.
The first tornado, according to the National Weather Service, was on the ground for almost 60 miles, leveling Rolling Fork in Sharkey County and Silver City in Humphreys County. A second was spawned shortly afterward, slamming into Black Hawk and continuing on some 30 miles toward Winona, claiming three casualties in the Summerfield community of Carroll County.
The storm was remarkable not only for its ferocity but also for its duration. The average tornado is on the ground for less than 4 miles, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of weather service data. Less than 1% of tornadoes in this country travel more than 50 miles. When they do, the amount of destruction is usually epic.
One can only imagine the carnage that might have occurred if this supercell had taken aim at a metropolitan area, instead of some of the more sparsely populated counties in this state.
Instead of 21 deaths, there would have been hundreds; instead of dozens of injuries and 313 destroyed structures, there would have been thousands of each; instead of thousands with their lives impacted, there would have been hundreds of thousands.
So although we can be grateful the toll wasn’t higher, the storm was stupendous for its severity where it did hit. Only slabs were left on many homes; 18-wheelers were tossed on their sides; line after line of trees were snapped flat on the ground. The storm’s force was like that of a hurricane, with a wall of wind instead of a wall of water.
Because the areas hit are rural, and many of the victims of limited means, the recovery could be a huge challenge, especially for those without insurance or without enough to cover their losses. It may require lots of help — both from government and from private sources — for them to get anywhere close to back on their feet.
It was gratifying to see how people and institutions responded immediately to the storm by bringing water, food, clothes, chain saws, household supplies — basically whatever it was they thought might be of use — to the scenes of the disaster. Collection efforts began almost immediately to raise funds and supplies. Both the federal and state governments pledged their financial assistance.
The challenge will be to maintain this level of focus and charitableness on these hard-hit areas once the immediate trauma fades.
The search-and-rescue phase of a natural disaster is the easy one for which to command support. Recovery is a much longer and much more expensive slog.
The dark cloud for those directly impacted by these tornadoes won’t lift anytime soon. They are going to need the silver lining to be there just as long.
