Pam started handing out the gathered supplies to the residents. She asked one of them if the Red Cross or anyone else had been out to assess the damage. The resident replied that they had been out the day before, left them some water, and told them they would have to go to the Tupelo office to file the paperwork for assistance. They were told they couldn’t do anything for them if they didn’t have driver’s licenses, social security numbers, and proof of residency for everybody in the household.
Pam was concerned about the lack of help and went to talk to other residents. She said brick homes were just foundations and mobile homes were just debris. It was the same story from other residents; they could not get help without ID and proof they lived there. Pam met the pastor of Chapel Grove Missionary Baptist Church. They were just outside the tornado’s path and not damaged. The church was taking any and all donations and had everything organized in their fellowship hall.
One of the residents Pam talked to was a man who lived in a brick house with a concrete foundation. He was on his way home, rounding the curve about ¼ mile from his residence, when he saw the tornado. He had two adult sons who were home. The man had always told his sons that the best shelter was in the bathtub in the master bedroom. The sons stepped outside and saw the tornado hitting the mobile homes across the street. They dashed to the bathtub for safety. Their father, sitting ¼ mile away, watched in horror as the tornado slammed into his home with his children inside.
After the tornado passed, the man raced to where his home used to be. The only thing left on the foundation was the master bathroom tub. Ceramic tiling had been pulled off the floor of the concrete foundation. The boys survived. One had a 2×4 that was impaled in his thigh, and both had cuts due to flying debris. Pam recalled the man telling her that all that mattered was that his children survived; everything else could be replaced.
Pam then told us something surprising. She asked if we remembered the story about the gentleman driving on Highway 45-Alternate, whose truck was picked up by the tornado. She told us that the truck was discovered in the backyard of the man who watched the tornado hit his home with his sons inside. Pam stated that not only did this man find his children in the debris, but he also found Lynn in the pickup truck. News stories about Lynn Davis had documented that the truck was “thrown for miles.” We asked Pam how far away 45-Alternate is from the man’s home. She said, “as the crow flies, 2 miles.”
After making this trip and hearing the stories from the Chapel Grove community, Pam knew she had to do more. When she returned to her Pontotoc County home, she “hit social media hard.” When it was time for the second trip down to help, she took a 16-foot open car trailer loaded down with supplies and delivered them to Chapel Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Pam said these trips continued for weeks. She learned of a man from Columbus, MS, who was also bringing supplies, and the church was cooking every day, twice a day for the community.
This event had a huge impact on Pam. She lives in a mobile home and has a “storm house” built in the 1940s. Pam, even though claustrophobic, cleaned it up and made it shelter-ready. “It changed my life completely, and I wasn’t in it. It changed how I thought about being prepared for something like that. It was a very, very humbling experience.”
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