I'm sick at my stomach.
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I FEEL YA. As federal 1st responder i have seen my share of death and destruction the past 30 years. I am almost numb when i go into these areas that a natural disaster has destroyed. i have really been changed myself. Sports take a distance back seat to these type of events.
A friend of mine volunteers a lot with Samaritan's Purse. He said that a group is heading to Mississippi, but don't know if it's Rolling Fork, Star City, or Amory. His section of SP works as chaplains.
Just left Silver City?.it?s all gone. As bad as any storm damage I?ve ever encountered. Was talking with the chief investigator for Humphreys County SO, and and he said as bad as it was at Silver City, Rolling Fork was on a scale of severity far beyond what had happened there. Silver City is just a small community of a few hundred ppl, but pretty much everyone there lost everything last night.
I live in Amory and it's bad. This is the first time I've had a chance to jump online since last night. I live in the southern part of town and I got lucky. Had a 50 year old oak tree that was flattened and I wasn't directly in the worst part. Luckily it blew away from the house and across the street. I've got some rental properties with some slight damage too but again, they're in the southern to center part of town. The northern part is a catastrophe. I hunkered down in a storm shelter and when I got out I knew it was bad. When daylight broke it was worse than I thought. Nobody killed in Amory proper and that's unbelievable. Elementary and High Schools took direct hits. Baseball field is essentially gone. We've been told we could be w/o power for 4-5 more days. No water either. It's a pretty surreal scene.
This was part of the same storm that hit Rolling Fork so wtva (Tupelo) had been tracking it for a long time. Kinda died down around Houston and then picked up and organized east of Okolona before proceeding thru Wren into Amory and Smithville. I knew the long track showed it going thru Monroe County so I had plenty of time to prepare. Btw, Matt Laubhan at WTVA is an outstanding broadcast meteorologist. He was all over this thing last night.
This thread made me very sad. i have sat here reflecting on all the tragic life altering events i have witnessed firsthand. The people i have come across that have lost their possessions and more tragically their lives. I know how SVD felt when you see bodies lying in the rubble especially children. I worked some of the worst natural disasters Moore Oklahoma tornado in 99, Katrina, Michael, Ian the list goes on and on. i told my wife a few months ago I've seen enough time to retire no more deployments. I am not to proud to say i have cried with many victims. and had nightmares on numerous occasions. Yep i am too old for this!
I'm going to tell you I now have a new found respect for first responders. 10 minutes after I was on the scene I was mentally done for. Massive tip of the cap to those there for hours and saw even more than I did. Massive respect for you doing this all over the nation. I honestly don't know that I have the mental fortitude to do that.
But here is what I do know. I am going to dramatically increase the amount of medical gear I take with me. Being very early on the scene there were not a lot of first responders there and very few of them were medics. No ambulances. It was gut wrenching hearing them yelling out asking if anybody had certain medical supplies and nobody did. I usually carry a basic first aid kit with an emphasis on large bandages and gauze pads, but I left without it this time. Never again. I'm going to increase those supplies and add things like portable stretchers and cervical collars. They were carrying people out on pieces of debris and the little girl I was assisting with wrapped up in a fireman's jacket. They delayed at least 10 minutes getting them to a hospital hoping somebody would show up with those basic supplies to help make transporting them safer and finally couldn't wait any longer.