Caledonia Water Superintendent Benny Coleman and office manager Cathy Brown were in the water department”s metal building on Jan. 10, 2008, when the tornado ripped through town. They didn”t see the winds rip apart the school. They didn”t see the cars and school buses flung into the air like children”s toys. From their refuge in the office closet, they could only huddle in the darkness and pray.
“It was too late to do anything,” Brown recalled. “It pulled the doors open and shook the door of the closet. When we came out, we saw all the damage.”
Though no one died that day in Caledonia — a blessing the town”s aldermen recently noted with a resolution giving thanks to God — the storm left its mark with more than just shattered buildings. The April tornado in Smithville, 40 miles away, brought back memories. Now, like many towns across the South, Caledonia is researching ways to make its residents safer through community storm shelters and government safe rooms.
The big question is, who will pay for it?
Amber Smith, with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency”s “A Safe Place to Go” program, said Thursday morning that Lowndes County is not among the 29 counties eligible for MEMA”s current safe room reimbursement program.
The program, which launched in 2001 following a series of deadly tornadoes, reopened June 2 for residents in counties directly impacted by the tornado outbreak of April 15-28.
Under the program, eligible homeowners may receive up to 75 percent reimbursement, not to exceed $4,000, for the construction of a single-family safe room. Funding is provided by FEMA”s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and administered by MEMA.
The application deadline is July 31 for people in the following counties: Alcorn, Attala, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Coahoma, DeSoto, Greene, Grenada, Hinds, Holmes, Jasper, Kemper, Lafayette, Leflore, Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Neshoba, Newton, Panola, Quitman, Smith, Sunflower, Tishomingo, Tunica, Webster and Winston. Priority is given to people whose homes were damaged or destroyed.
Smith said even though Lowndes and Oktibbeha residents are not currently eligible, the program may be expanded to include other counties if there are surplus funds in the program”s coffers after the July 31 deadline.
At a board meeting earlier in the week, Caledonia Alderman Mike Savage discussed the possibility of getting a small municipal grant to build a community center or fire station, incorporating a safe room into the plans.
Mayor George Gerhart said it would be a good idea. The town has a little more than three acres available on South Street near the water department where such a structure could be built — if the town can find funding for it.
“Might be a long time down the road,” Gerhart said Thursday. “I don”t know.”
As for Coleman, he didn”t wait. Within a year after riding out the Caledonia storm in the water department”s closet, he applied for MEMA funding and had a safe room built at his home.
“It was too close for comfort,” Coleman said. “The older I get, the more I respect Mother Nature. It”s an experience I hope I never have again. I wish we had one for the employees. There”s nothing for the community.”
That”s something that has been on the mind of Harry Sanders, president of the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors. Sanders was present at Caledonia”s Town Hall meeting Tuesday night, and he told aldermen that the county is considering placing storm shelters at each of its five road department satellite barns and one at the central maintenance office to protect the county”s 60 road workers during inclement weather.
Sanders said Wednesday that if Lowndes County can”t secure a grant, they might build the structures themselves.
“We don”t want our men at the county barn working and have no place to get if there”s severe weather,” Sanders said. “The road department (employees) are normally the first responders to an emergency, cleaning off the roads so ambulances and fire trucks can get through.”
Both Caledonia and Lowndes County officials are researching alternatives to MEMA grants.
“I wish they would (build a community safe room),” Brown said. “We have nowhere to go here in town.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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