Amory takes direct hit in Mississippi tornado's path. No loss of life but businesses, homes destroyed

AMORY — Residents of a Northeast Mississippi town have begun cleaning up and repairing their homes after a tornado rolled through the town Friday night, leaving downed power lines, uprooted trees and shredded buildings in its wake.

A joint search and rescue operation concluded by Saturday afternoon in Amory, according to Assistant Police Chief Nicholaus Weaver.

“All the residential buildings in the town have been searched and found clear,” Weaver said. “Now it’s about the cleanup — getting to the roads to make sure they’re open. It’s going to be a long process. Power lines are down on almost every street and most of them are intertwined with the trees.”

Weaver said there have not been any fatalities inside the Amory town limits, though said there were injuries.

Pieces of roofing and siding littered the streets of downtown Amory, with power lines criss-crossing the roads, and, in some places, blocking them altogether.

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The town is also operating without clean drinking water, due to a “direct hit,” as Weaver put it, to Amory’s water treatment plant.

Amory had been experiencing a boost of national attention after two of its residents had received Golden Tickets to advance to Hollywood on "American Idol" earlier in March.

On Saturday, community members brought truck beds full of bottled water to first responders, who are moving them to a warehouse before distributing them to residents.

Few buildings remained unscathed, with some being completely demolished by tornado — and many requiring extensive repairs from falling tree limbs or entire trees being ripped from the ground and thrown into buildings.

For those who have been displaced by the storms, the old National Guard Armory has been converted to a shelter at 101 9th Ave.

“Everybody has been just about as positive as you can in a situation like this,” Weaver said. “Amory is a small community, but we are always helping each other. We’ve helped a lot of other communities in the past, and now those communities are coming to help us — and that’s the way you’re supposed to do it.”

Smoke from grills filled the air surrounding a damaged strip mall’s parking lot. The area has been turned into a command center, where between 10 and 15 law enforcement agencies, according to Weaver, have been coordinating.

The cause of the smoke in the town’s activity hub could be traced to the five different stands offering free food and drinks to any in need.

The tent closest to the command center belongs to a group of Community Bank employees from Tupelo.

“We went through the same thing back in 2014,” said Jon Paul Rhea, the president of Community Bank’s Tupelo and Lee County branch. “A tornado hit Tupelo and these [first responders] helped out. Mississippi is a close-knit group, and is always looking for any ways we can help each other out.”

Rhea said the group of bank employees also came to support the workers from the Amory branch, which sits across from the command center.

Marcus McCoy and his son, also from Tupelo, have also set up a grill near the command center.

“When it hit, I just knew I had to do something,” McCoy said. “I don’t just sit around let people suffer. I know the first responders, as well as the people that call this place home, need help.”

Just a block away from the command center, a group of residents from Forward Church in Amory were also providing free food, drinks and toiletries to those in need.

Linda West, a member of Forward Church who was handing out supplies, described Amory as “a loving community,” saying many members have already visited their tent.

“When [residents] come to us, they’re hungry and thirsty,” West said. “Some of them are so humbled and proud to be able to get anything. We’ve had people come up to us and say they’ve lost everything. We’ve had people walk up and say, ‘Our roof is gone, and everything in the house is wet.’ They’re just so humble to get something to eat and drink — it’s been a long time since 9:30 last night.”

The worship pastor at Forward Church was among the residents to wake up to a damaged home. West said the house — which the pastor moved into recently — was severely damaged. West said the pastor, instead of focusing on fixing his house, has been focusing on delivering food and water to the parts of Amory that have been most impacted.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi tornado path hits Amory, MS, water treatment plant