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For disaster victims trying to rebuild their lives, their last hope: volunteer groups

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A day that began with clear, blue skies for LeeOtis Hubbard Gladney ended with destruction during nightfall, when a March 24 tornado swept through Amory. 

A nightmare followed the terror of that night as Gladney soon realized her path to recovery would not be easy. After experiencing insufficient help from her insurance company, and little from the federal government, she became one of thousands who have relied on volunteer assistance to recover from a disaster.

The night of the storm, Gladney sat in her brown recliner listening to the weather forecaster track the storm. She assumed the tornado would not cause substantial damage to Amory based on past times when the tornado did not touch down.

But once the forecaster started praying for Amory, reality sunk in. Gladney’s granddaughter called, asking if Gladney could make it to her house. Then the power went out.

Gladney, who had knee surgery just a week before, struggled to move to find shelter in her home.

Soon her grandson, Rafael, rushed into the house and assisted her, along with her cane, behind a couch. He placed her on the floor and threw a mattress off a bed to cover Gladney, her husband and her younger son, Leonard.

A couple of minutes after Rafael left to protect his own family, sirens blared, high winds roared outside, and the carport’s tin roof in the backyard began to crumble. Leonard gripped Gladney’s hand for comfort as an unsettling atmosphere lingered over the family. 

“After a while, it was all over,” Gladney said as her voice trailed off. “It was all over.”

Residents are still in the process of rebuilding, 95 days after a series of deadly tornadoes and strong thunderstorms swept across Mississippi – killing at least 25 people and leaving a 100-mile trail of destruction.

Gladney is one of those residents in Amory.

The morning following the storm, her daughter, Tujuana Hampton, pleaded with Gladney to leave her home, but she refused. It took Hampton two days to get Gladney out of the house, insisting she could either walk or be carried. 

“When we got outside, she turned and looked at the damage to her house. She almost passed out,” Hampton stated.

Two unrooted trees rested on top of Gladney’s home, parts of the ceiling were damaged, and the foundation of her home had shifted.

LeeOtis Hubbard Gladney at her Amory home on Thursday, June 15, 2023, where a recent tornado caused a large tree to fall on and severely damage her home. Gladney is in the process of moving out of her tornado damaged home. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

She said she found herself stuck with little to no assistance from FEMA and her insurer.

“FEMA told her since she has insurance and, if the company gave her over $40,000, then there was nothing they could do to help her. But $40,000 wouldn’t even cover half of what her house and yard (repairs) would cost,” Hampton told Mississippi Today.

FEMA spokesperson Mike Wade confirmed that if a survivor receives $41,000 from insurance, any further FEMA support is considered a duplication of assistance, which is not allowed.

FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program meets basic needs and supplements disaster recovery efforts, but it cannot replace insurance or compensate for all disaster losses. Therefore, the amount of financial assistance an individual or household may receive under FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program is limited. 

Michael Richmond-Crum, the director of personal lines for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said insurance companies have a responsibility to their customers to act urgently for covered losses following a disaster. However, many states are facing a growing affordability and availability crisis in property insurance markets.

“2022 was the eighth consecutive year in a row that the U.S. suffered at least 10 catastrophes, causing more than a billion dollars in losses each. Natural disaster losses from 2020-2022 in the U.S. exceeded $275 billion in 2022 dollars, which is the highest ever three-year total for U.S. insurers,” Richmond-Crum told Mississippi Today.

Even in federally declared disaster areas like Amory, residents like Gladney are left to rely on volunteer organizations for help in recovering.

On March 27, Samaritan’s Purse, a North Carolina-based evangelical Christian relief organization, deployed one disaster relief unit to Rolling Fork and another to Amory to assist homeowners impacted by the destruction.

Through its mobile home replacement program, 38 families from Mississippi towns and surrounding areas have been approved as of June 7. Six mobile homes were delivered to the families two months after the tornado, and others are actively in the application process.

“A lot of the families we are helping are severely underinsured or don’t have the resources to get back into their house. They are still eligible to apply for the mobile home program,” Luther Harrison, vice president of North America Ministries, told Mississippi Today.

Partnering with local churches in the community, the organization was directed to residents in the neighborhoods that needed assistance. The organization tarped damaged roofs, cut up fallen trees, and cleared debris from yards.

“We know they lost most if not everything they had, and we’re just trying to show them Christ-like love as we go out into the community and help them,” Harrison said.

In Mississippi, Samaritan’s Purse was able to help 402 families with cleanup through the assistance of 1,145 volunteers that came out to serve.

Hubbard was one of them.

“The Samaritan’s Purse came and cleaned up the yard for her. People that we don’t know came and fed us and made sure we had water,” Hampton said.

Operation BBQ Relief, a Missouri nonprofit established in May 2011, has provided over 10 million meals throughout the United States and internationally following natural disasters. They have served close to 85,000 meals in Mississippi deployments.

During the organization’s deployment to Amory on March 26 – April 3, they provided the community with 4,355 meals to the town of about 6,360 people.

Heather Williams, the director of communications for Operation BBQ Relief, said the organization tries to relieve the burden and stress residents experience when uncertain of their next meal, as a result of the closure or damage to stores and restaurants.

“We want to provide one thing that they can count on when their life has been turned upside down: a hot meal,” Williams continued. “We value them.”

Head of Volunteer Services for Operation BBQ Relief Brian Polak said the organization fuels the residents both literally, with a hot meal, and figuratively, through a sense of community.

Providing disaster relief is “one of the hardest things volunteers will ever love doing,” Polak said. There’s a willingness to help others which is what gets volunteers involved, but it’s the experiences that keep them involved, he said.

The organization has over 18,000 volunteers nationwide.

“Volunteer agencies bring varied services to those in need, instead of those in need having to seek out the assistance, which can be difficult for a multitude of reasons during those first hours, days, or weeks,” Polak stated.

In Mississippi areas, where resources are already stretched thin after natural disasters, it is often difficult to contact someone who can help. And even when assistance is provided, it can be insufficient. 

Tujuana Hampton (left) with her mother LeeOtis Hubbard Gladney at Gladney’s tornado damaged home in Amory, Thursday, June 15, 2023. . Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Gladney has been able to move into a temporary residence of her own, after leaving Hampton’s home – 83 days after the storm.

Gladney’s home is cleared on the outside, but it remains unlivable on the inside, she said. Even though she received assistance from volunteer organizations, she refused to let them clean inside her home because of her reliance on insurance.

“I’ve been hoping and praying for Alfa to come around and do me right,” Gladney said of her insurance company.

According to Gladney, Alfa Corp. won’t condemn the home – determine the home is no longer fit for human inhabitation – because insurance would have to pay for the estimated value to rebuild her home. Instead, it is stating the conditions of the house were “pre-existent,” Gladney said.

An Alfa Corp. spokesperson stated the claims department couldn’t comment on individual claims.

“Now, she’s stuck,” Hampton said. “Her whole life was in that house. And now, that’s it.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday

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mississippitoday.org – @alxrzr – 2025-04-25 16:04:00

Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.

A truck sits in high water after the owner parked, then boated to his residence on Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg as a rising Mississippi River causes backwater flooding, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”

The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.

A rising Mississippi River causing backwater flooding near Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.
Old tires aligned a backyard as a deterrent to rising water north of Vicksburg along U.S. 61, Friday, April 25, 2025.
As the Mississippi River rises, backwater flooding creeps towards a home located on Falk Steel Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”

The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Flood waters along Kings Point Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.

“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”

NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.

The boat launch area is closed and shored up on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The boat launch area (right) is closed and under water on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
City of Vicksburg workers shore up the bank along Levee Street as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The old pedestrian bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Mississippi Today

With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-25 15:07:00

Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed. 

They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them. 

Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother. 

“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.” 

Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023. 

Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board. 

The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition. 

A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities. 

Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board. 

In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties. 

The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more. 

From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths. 

“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said. 

Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.

A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents. 

Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed. 

In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.

Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records. 

Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson. 

Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.  

He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media. 

Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary. 

Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents. 

At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.

“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Mississippi Today

Court to rule on DeSoto County Senate districts with special elections looming

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-25 15:06:00

A federal three-judge panel will rule in coming days on how political power in northwest Mississippi will be allocated in the state Senate and whether any incumbents in the DeSoto County area might have to campaign against each other in November special elections.  

The panel, comprised of all George W. Bush-appointed judges, ordered state officials last week to, again, craft a new Senate map for the area in the suburbs of Memphis. The panel has held that none of the state’s prior maps gave Black voters a realistic chance to elect candidates of their choice. 

The latest map proposed by the all-Republican State Board of Election Commissioners tweaked only four Senate districts in northwest Mississippi and does not pit any incumbent senators against each other. 

The state’s proposal would keep the Senate districts currently held by Sen. Michael McLendon, a Republican from Hernando and Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, in majority-white districts. 

But it makes Sen. David Parker’s district a slightly majority-Black district. Parker, a white Republican from Olive Branch, would run in a district with a 50.1% black voting-age population, according to court documents. 

The proposal also maintains the district held by Sen. Reginald Jackson, a Democrat from Marks, as a majority-Black district, although it reduces the Black voting age population from 61% to 53%.  

Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch comprise the State Board of Election Commissioners. Reeves and Watson voted to approve the plan. But Watson, according to meeting documents, expressed a wish that the state had more time to consider different proposals. 

Fitch did not attend the meeting, but Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb attended in her place. Lipscomb voted against the map, although it is unclear why. Fitch’s office declined to comment on why she voted against the map because it involves pending litigation. 

The reason for redrawing the districts is that the state chapter of the NAACP and Black voters in the state sued Mississippi officials for drawing legislative districts in a way that dilutes Black voting power. 

The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, are likely to object to the state’s newest proposal, and they have until April 29 to file an objection with the court

The plaintiffs have put forward two alternative proposals for the area in the event the judges rule against the state’s plans. 

The first option would place McLendon and Blackwell in the same district, and the other would place McLendon and Jackson in the same district. 

It is unclear when the panel of judges will issue a ruling on the state’s plan, but they will not issue a ruling until the plaintiffs file their remaining court documents next week. 

While the November election is roughly six months away, changing legislative districts across counties and precincts is technical work, and local election officials need time to prepare for the races. 

The judges have not yet ruled on the full elections calendar, but U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick said at a hearing earlier this month that the panel was committed have the elections in November. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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