As Flora Mayor Les Childress and dozens of other volunteers used chain saws and tractors to clear debris off U.S. 49 to Yazoo City following Saturday's deadly tornado, he turned around to see Gov. Haley R. Barbour pitching in.
Childress and many other Flora residents were some of the first on the scene Saturday, literally cutting their way through downed trees to reach victims of an EF-4 tornado that cut through central Mississippi and claimed 10 lives.
State officials are estimating nearly 700 homes were damaged and 49 people were injured during the storms. Two others died in Alabama.
The hardest hit areas included Yazoo and Choctaw counties. This week Barbour asked President Barack Obama to declare both counties major disaster areas to open up aid for residents and business owners.
On Saturday, Barbour, a Yazoo City native, was on the front lines clearing debris from U.S 49 and directing traffic to give workers enough room to clear the roadway.
"It really hit home for him," Childress said. "You could tell he was really trying to get there (Yazoo City)."
Childress said they were all shocked at the amount of devastation before them, but the mayor said he was even more amazed at the almost instantaneous outpouring of support from the community.
"I went up there Saturday around 1 p.m. right after it happened and there were already folks from Flora there," he said. "Every citizen that lived in the surrounding area was there working to try and help out their neighbors.
"Flora has a lot of ties to Yazoo County," he added. "They're family."
Read more at the Madison County Journal
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