As M.J. Hill loaded clothes, shoes and other belongings onto a trailer Wednesday morning in The Pines mobile home park, the Mississippi State University senior was greeted by Isabella Collier and her son, Kenneth.
Isabella, who lived a few lots from Hill in the shaded community off Louisville Street, approached the State Line native and gave him a warm, heartfelt hug. Yards away, Hill”s mobile home was in ruins. A large tree crashed through his bedroom Monday night when an EF2 tornado struck the community roughly a quarter mile south of Starkville High School.
“I”m just thankful I wasn”t inside,” Hill said, his eyes locked on his former home as his father, Morris, climbed inside to gather electronics and other salvageable items. Hill left the park Monday night when he heard the city”s tornado sirens and wasn”t home when the tree crushed his trailer, he said.
The Hill family spent Wednesday gathering M.J.”s belongings and helping him move to a friend”s house until he finds long-term living arrangements. The Colliers and dozens of other families in The Pines were doing the same.
Hill and Isabella Collier”s homes were two of 15 in The Pines which were destroyed by the storm, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Eighteen more homes sustained major damage, 20 received minor damage and 44 others were affected.
Isabella Collier was inside her home with friend Robert Graham Monday night when the walls and ceiling came crashing down around them, she recalled Wednesday. Bruised but otherwise unhurt, the pair crawled from the storm-ravaged home.
“I really thought we weren”t going to make it,” she said.
Collier is staying with her daughter for the time being, she said, her eyes moist as she watched Graham pick through the broken boards and siding where she lived for 26 years.
“Everything is destroyed,” she said.
“The furniture, the car — it”s a total loss,” Kenneth Collier chimed in.
Scenes like the one at Isabella Collier”s were common throughout The Pines Wednesday as the cleanup from Monday”s storm continued. Some residents waited for insurance adjusters and walked around the community to pass the time, while others packed belongings into vehicles and prepared to move.
Fallen trees laid on homes, branches and pine cones littered every yard and a trailer rested on its side in the middle of the park Wednesday afternoon, more than 36 hours after the tornado hit. The city plans to move the trailer from the road after the owner”s insurance company completes its assessment of the damage, Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman said.
The Northeast Mississippi chapter of the American Red Cross has placed between 35 and 40 Starkville residents, most of whom were displaced from The Pines, in hotels this week while they search for new places to stay. Okitibbeha-Starkville Emergency Response Services paid for hotel rooms for another 19 displaced residents.
Red Cross workers talked with storm victims Wednesday, assigned them case workers and provided financial assistance for food and clothing. Meadowview Baptist Church also was on hand with soup, chili and chicken sandwiches, while Community Counseling Services was parked in a nearby shopping center. Community Counseling offered toiletries, food and counseling to victims of the storm.
The Starkville Electric Department was still working to restore power to the community Wednesday as state fire marshals surveyed homes.
Both OSERVS and the Starkville office of the American Red Cross are accepting donations for tornado victims. Wiseman is encouraging the public to contribute to the relief effort.
“It”s miraculous no one was seriously injured,” the first-term mayor said. “There are several families who have lost everything they own and they need the support of this community.”
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