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'Like you were unzipping a jacket': How survivors barely missed tornado damage, and their next steps for rebuilding

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‘Like you were unzipping a jacket’: How survivors barely missed tornado damage, and their next steps for rebuilding

ROLLING FORK – At first, Eddie Jones’ two 5-year-old twin daughters didn’t want to stay with his mother last Friday night.

But after she insisted, the girls complied, and at around 6:30 p.m. they made the short four-block trip to their grandmother’s house.

Now by himself in his Rolling Fork home, Jones, a 50-year-old retiredArmy veteran, anchored his attention to the television, where he was tracking some NBA wagers he placed on a fantasy sports app. With his earpiece clipped in, Jones was talking with his buddies about the night’s games when he heard a strange whistling sound from outside at around 8 p.m.

The whistling turned to a roar, and Jones bolted for the bathroom. He ran so fast he banged his leg on the bathtub before he laid down inside it.

He knew what it was, because a couple hours earlier he saw an alert on his phone about a possible tornado in the area. At the time, he didn’t think much of it, figuring it was just another one of the small storms he was used to. There might be some lightning, some power outages, but things would be fine by the morning, Jones told himself.

“It’s pretty regular around here,” he said later, recalling the warning on his phone. “But things were different this time.”

When asked if he heard a tornado siren or any other kind of alarm from outside his home, Jones said he didn’t hear anything.

Eddie Jones’ Rolling Fork home after a tornado hit on Mar. 24, 2023.

Sharkey County Supervisor Bill Newsom confirmed to Mississippi Today that a siren in Rolling Fork wasn’t working when the storm arrived on Friday. On the county website, a notice about the siren’s repairs says that, in the event of a tornado, a patrol car would drive through the city with its sirens on to warn citizens.

Jones said he didn’t hear that either. Rolling Fork officials couldn’t be reached before this story published. Newsom said a Georgia-based company called him after the storm and said it would install a new siren for free.

While stationed in his bathtub, Jones heard the windows around the house pop.

“The glass was shooting everywhere, and my walls started cracking,” Jones remembered. “It was just like you were unzipping a jacket.”

Laying down, he felt the house lift up into the air and settle back onto the ground.

When the commotion outside died down, Jones looked up to see that his bathroom door had flown off, and his clothes were scattered around the house. He climbed around his belongings and tried to get outside, but the wind was still holding his front door shut. Instead, he ducked outside the one window that wasn’t shattered and made his way to his mother’s house where his daughters were.

Fortunately, her house just four blocks away was untouched.

Jones went back in the morning to check on the damages: The roof was cracked open, tree limbs protruded out of the side of his living room and his car’s windshield. The entire house had shifted a few feet off of its foundation.

But what struck Jones the most was looking to his daughters’ room. He noticed that the wind, after breaking the window, blew debris inside and across the room, shattering a mirror on the opposite wall.

“Had my girls been (home), asleep in their bed, they wouldn’t be here,” Jones said.

Jones and his daughters are still staying with his mother. He said the water pressure at her house finally returned to normal as of Wednesday, a relief after washing himself with baby wipes the last few days, and the power came back on Tuesday.

Now, Jones and hundreds of other Mississippians wait to see what relief will come from the government and charities to help them rebuild.

Eddie Jones’ daughters’ room in Rolling Fork after a tornado hit on Mar. 24, 2023.

‘It’s going to be a mess

Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, which, with about 4,000 residents, is the second least-populated county in the state. After last weekend’s tornadoes, about a quarter of the county is now displaced from their homes, Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney estimated.

Because President Joe Biden approved an emergency disaster declaration, victims are eligible for grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help pay for temporary housing as well as to rebuild their homes.

The program, FEMA’s Individual Assistance, can kick in if a victim doesn’t have insurance covering storm damage or if the insurance doesn’t cover all of the damages. Victims can also apply for low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration. Receiving an SBA loan and its interest rates are subject to a victim’s credit history, among other factors.

Chaney said it’ll be a challenge to get all of the resources needed from the government to rebuild Sharkey County, where 27% of residents live in poverty and many homes are uninsured.

“For the individuals, the lower income population, they’re not insured,” he said. “A lot of them live in trailers. It’s going to be a mess, it’s going to be hard. The government is going to have to really step in this time.”

Chaney estimated that, between people’s homes and county infrastructure, Sharkey County could be dealing with over $200 million in uninsured losses.

A truck rests in what is left of Chuck’s Dairy Bar in Rollingfork after a tornado devasted the area Friday night, Saturday, March 25, 2023.

“I’ve never been so stressed in all of my life. I’m usually a strong old woman, but I ain’t that no more,” said Collie Barnes, an 81-year-old lifelong resident of Anguilla, which is just north of Rolling Fork. “I’m just glad to be alive.”

Barnes took refuge with her neighbors, who initially wanted to stay home, in a nearby church after hearing about the storm on the news. She went back to see her porch was missing and water was leaking through the roof, but she realized she was relatively fortunate.

“(Her neighbor) said, ‘I better see if I got a house,’ and she didn’t. It was gone,” Barnes said.

On Wednesday, Barnes and others came to the town hall in Anguilla – which itself is still recovering from a tornado last December – where a FEMA official sat outside, helping victims apply for assistance.

The state hasn’t yet released an official count of total people displaced. While as of Tuesday less than 30 people were staying in shelters, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, a motel in Greenville is giving over 100 of its rooms for victims to stay in, the Clarion Ledger reported.FEMA is also placing victims in nearby hotel rooms, an agency spokesperson said, adding that anyone affected should either call800-621-3362or visitdisasterassistance.govfor help.

On Thursday, MEMA gave the latest information on damaged homes, deaths and injuries by county:

  • Bolivar County: 9 damaged homes
  • Carroll County: 24 damaged homes, 5 injuries, 3 deaths
  • Humphreys County: 55 damaged homes, 15 injuries, 3 deaths
  • Itawamba County: 1 damaged home
  • Lafayette County: 2 damaged homes
  • Lee County: 10 damaged homes
  • Monroe County: 1,476 damaged homes, 55 injuries, 2 deaths
  • Montgomery County: 49 damaged homes
  • Grenada County: 1 damaged home
  • Prentiss County: 1 damaged home
  • Panola County: 31 damaged homes
  • Sharkey County: 255 damaged homes, 15 injuries, 13 deaths

MEMA spokesperson Malary White said that, as of Tuesday, all missing persons had been accounted for.

So far, FEMA has approved Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe and Sharkey Counties to apply for Individual Assistance. MEMA spokesperson Malary White said more counties could be added as damage assessments continue.

Those counties, as well as Attala, Chickasaw, Clay, Grenada, Holmes, Issaquena, Itawamba, Lee, Leflore, Lowndes, Montgomery, Sunflower, Washington and Yazoo counties are also eligible to apply for SBA disaster loans.

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

Mississippi Today

Jackson’s performing arts venue Thalia Mara Hall is now open

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-06-30 17:29:00


Thalia Mara Hall in Jackson has reopened after over 10 months of closure due to mold, asbestos, and air conditioning issues. Outgoing Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba celebrated the venue’s reopening as a significant cultural milestone. The hall closed last August and recently passed inspection after extensive remediation. About \$5 million in city and state funds were invested to bring it up to code. Some work remains, including asbestos removal from the fire curtain beam and installing a second air-conditioning chiller, so seating capacity is temporarily reduced to 800. Event bookings will start in the fall when full capacity is expected.

After more than 10 months closed due to mold, asbestos and issues with the air conditioning system, Thalia Mara Hall has officially reopened. 

Outgoing Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba announced the reopening of Thalia Mara Hall during his final press conference held Monday on the arts venue’s steps. 

“Today marks what we view as a full circle moment, rejoicing in the iconic space where community has come together for decades in the city of Jackson,” Lumumba said. “Thalia Mara has always been more than a venue. It has been a gathering place for people in the city of Jackson. From its first class ballet performances to gospel concerts, Thalia Mara Hall has been the backdrop for our city’s rich cultural history.” 

Thalia Mara Hall closed last August after mold was found in parts of the building. The issues compounded from there, with malfunctioning HVAC systems and asbestos remediation. On June 6, the Mississippi State Fire Marshal’s Office announced that Thalia Mara Hall had finally passed inspection. 

“We’re not only excited to have overcome many of the challenges that led to it being shuttered for a period of time,” Lumumba said. “We are hopeful for the future of this auditorium, that it may be able to provide a more up-to-date experience for residents, inviting shows that people are able to see across the world, bringing them here to Jackson. So this is an investment in the future.”

In total, Emad Al-Turk, a city contracted engineer and owner of Al-Turk Planning, estimates that $5 million in city and state funds went into bringing Thalia Mara Hall up to code. 

The venue still has work to be completed, including reinstalling the fire curtain. The beam in which the fire curtain will be anchored has asbestos in it, so it will have to be remediated. In addition, a second air-conditioning chiller needs to be installed to properly cool the building. Until it’s installed, which could take months, Thalia Mara Hall will be operating at a lower seating capacity of about 800. 

“Primarily because of the heat,” Al-Turk said. “The air conditioning would not be sufficient to actually accommodate the 2,000 people at full capacity, but starting in the fall, that should not be a problem.”

Al-Turk said the calendar is open for the city to begin booking events, though none have been scheduled for July. 

“We’re very proud,” he said. “This took a little bit longer than what we anticipated, but we had probably seven or eight different contractors we had to coordinate with and all of them did a superb job to get us where we are today.”

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

The post Jackson’s performing arts venue Thalia Mara Hall is now open appeared first on mississippitoday.org



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The article presents a straightforward report on the reopening of Thalia Mara Hall in Jackson, focusing on facts and statements from city officials without promoting any ideological viewpoint. The tone is neutral and positive, emphasizing the community and cultural significance of the venue while detailing the challenges overcome during renovations. The coverage centers on public investment and future prospects, without partisan framing or editorializing. While quotes from Mayor Lumumba and a city engineer highlight optimism and civic pride, the article maintains balanced, factual reporting rather than advancing a political agenda.

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Mississippi Today

‘Hurdles waiting in the shadows’: Lumumba reflects on challenges and triumphs on final day as Jackson mayor

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mississippitoday.org – @ayewolfe – 2025-06-30 17:08:00


Chokwe Antar Lumumba reflected on his eight years as Jackson mayor during a final press conference outside the recently reopened Thalia Mara Hall. He praised his team and highlighted achievements like avoiding a state takeover of public schools, suing Siemens for faulty water meters, paving 144 streets, and a recent significant drop in crime. Lumumba acknowledged constant challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, water crises, a trash pickup strike, and a federal corruption indictment linked to a stalled hotel project. He confirmed he will not seek office again, returning to his private law practice as longtime state Sen. John Horhn prepares to take office.

On his last day as mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Antar Lumumba recounted accomplishments, praised his executive team and said he has no plans to seek office again.

He spoke during a press conference outside of the city’s Thalia Mara Hall, which was recently cleared for reopening after nearly a year of remediation. The briefing, meant to give media members a peek inside the downtown theater, marked one of Lumumba’s final forays as mayor.

Longtime state Sen. John Horhn — who defeated Lumumba in the Democratic primary runoff — will be inaugurated as mayor Tuesday, but Lumumba won’t be present. Not for any contentious reason, the 42-year-old mayor noted, but because he returns to his private law practice Tuesday.

“I’ve got to work now, y’all,” Lumumba said. “I’ve got a job.”

Thalia Mara Hall’s presumptive comeback was a fitting end for Lumumba, who pledged to make Jackson the most radical city in America but instead spent much of his eight years in office parrying one emergency after another. The auditorium was built in 1968 and closed nearly 11 months ago after workers found mold caused by a faulty HVAC system – on top of broken elevators, fire safety concerns and vandalism.

“This job is a fast-pitched sport,” Lumumba said. “There’s an abundance of challenges that have to be addressed, and it seems like the moment that you’ve gotten over one hurdle, there’s another one that is waiting in the shadows.” 

Outside the theater Monday, Lumumba reflected on the high points of his leadership instead of the many crises — some seemingly self-inflicted — he faced as mayor. 

He presided over the city during the coronavirus pandemic and the rise in crime it brought, but also the one-two punch of the 2021 and 2022 water crises, exacerbated by the city’s mismanagement of its water plants, and the 18-day pause in trash pickup spurred by Lumumba’s contentious negotiations with the city council in 2023. 

Then in 2024, Lumumba was indicted alongside other city and county officials in a sweeping federal corruption probe targeting the proposed development of a hotel across from the city’s convention center, a project that has remained stalled in a 20-year saga of failed bids and political consternation. 

Slated for trial next year, Lumumba has repeatedly maintained his innocence. 

The city’s youngest mayor also brought some victories to Jackson, particularly in his first year in office. In 2017, he ended a furlough of city employees and worked with then-Gov. Phil Bryant to avoid a state takeover of Jackson Public Schools. In 2019, the city successfully sued German engineering firm Siemens and its local contractors for $89 million over botched work installing the city’s water-sewer billing infrastructure.

“I think that that was a pivotal moment to say that this city is going to hold people responsible for the work that they do,” Lumumba said. 

Lumumba had more time than any other mayor to usher in the 1% sales tax, which residents approved in 2014 to fund infrastructure improvements.

“We paved 144 streets,” he said. “There are residents that still are waiting on their roads to be repaved. And you don’t really feel it until it’s your street that gets repaved, but that is a significant undertaking.”

And under his administration, crime has fallen dramatically recently, with homicides cut by a third and shootings cut in half in the last year.

Lumumba was first elected in 2017 after defeating Tony Yarber, a business-friendly mayor who faced his own scandals as mayor. A criminal justice attorney, Lumumba said he never planned to seek office until the stunning death of his father, Chokwe Lumumba Sr., eight months into his first term as mayor in 2014.

“I can say without reservation, and unequivocally, we remember where we started. We are in a much better position than we started,” Lumumba said. 

Lumumba said he has sat down with Horhn in recent months, answered questions “as extensively as I could,” and promised to remain reachable to the new mayor.

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

The post 'Hurdles waiting in the shadows': Lumumba reflects on challenges and triumphs on final day as Jackson mayor appeared first on mississippitoday.org



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article reports on outgoing Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s reflections without overt editorializing but subtly frames his tenure within progressive contexts, emphasizing his self-described goal to make Jackson “the most radical city in America.” The piece highlights his accomplishments alongside challenges, including public crises and a federal indictment, maintaining a factual tone yet noting contentious moments like labor disputes and governance issues. While it avoids partisan rhetoric, the focus on social justice efforts, infrastructure investment, and crime reduction, as well as positive framing of Lumumba’s achievements, aligns with a center-left perspective that values progressive governance and accountability.

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Mississippi Today

Feds unfreeze $137 million in Mississippi education money

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mississippitoday.org – @devnabose – 2025-06-30 15:37:00


The federal government is restoring $137 million in pandemic relief education funds to Mississippi schools, reversing a prior freeze linked to Trump-era spending cuts. Initially, states had until March 2026 to use the money, but the funds were withheld after the pandemic was declared over. After a lawsuit by Democratic-led states and injunctive orders favoring those states, the U.S. Department of Education decided to reinstate funding uniformly to all states, including Mississippi. School districts can now request access to these funds for projects such as tutoring, counseling, and construction. The litigation continues, so the funding status could change again.

The federal government is restoring $137 million in education funds to Mississippi schools.

The U.S. Department of Education notified states last week that it would reinstate pandemic relief funds. The decision comes less than three months after the federal government revoked billions nationwide as part of Trump administration efforts to cut government spending. 

State education agencies and school districts originally had until March 2026 to spend the money, but the federal government claimed that because the pandemic was over, they had no use for the money. 

That March 2026 deadline has been reinstated following a series of injunctive orders. 

A coalition of Democratic-led states sued the federal government in April over the decision to withhold the money. Then, a federal judge granted plaintiff states injunctive orders in the case, which meant those states could continue spending their COVID-relief dollars while other states remained restricted.

But the education department decided that wasn’t fair, wrote Secretary Linda McMahon in a letter dated June 26, so the agency was restoring the money to all states, not just the ones involved in the lawsuit. 

“The original intent of the policy announced on March 28 was to treat all states consistently with regards to safeguarding and refocusing their remaining COVID-era grant funding on students,” she wrote. “The ongoing litigation has created basic fairness and uniformity problems.”

The Mississippi Department of Education notified school districts about the decision on Friday. 

In the meantime, schools and states have been requesting exemptions for individual projects, though many from across the country have been denied

Eleven Mississippi school districts had submitted requests to use the money to fund services such as tutoring and counseling, according to records requested by Mississippi Today, though those are now void because of the federal government’s decision. 

Starting immediately, school districts can submit new requests to the state education department to draw down their federal allocation.

Mississippi Today previously reported that about 70 school districts were relying on the federal funds to pay for a range of initiatives, including construction projects, mental health services and literacy programs. 

In 2023, almost half of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, pandemic relief money allocated to schools across the country, went to students’ academic, social, and emotional needs. A third went to operational and staff costs, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Education.

Though Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann previously said that legislative leaders might consider helping agencies that were impacted by federal funding cuts, House Speaker Jason White said Monday that he did not have an appetite for directing state funds to pandemic-era programs. 

Small school districts were already feeling the impact of the federal government’s decision to rescind the money. In May, Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School Board voted to terminate a contract on a school construction project funded with federal dollars. 

The litigation is ongoing, so the funding could again be rescinded.

Clarification: A previous version of this article misstated the status of school districts’ pandemic relief money.

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

The post Feds unfreeze $137 million in Mississippi education money appeared first on mississippitoday.org



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

This article primarily reports on the federal government’s decision to restore $137 million in education funds to Mississippi schools after a temporary freeze. It presents factual information about the timeline, legal actions, and responses from various state officials without adopting a partisan tone. The piece mentions the involvement of Democratic-led states suing the federal government and notes Republican-aligned efforts to cut spending, but does so in a balanced way focused on reporting events and statements rather than promoting a political viewpoint. The language remains neutral and factual, avoiding loaded or biased framing, making it a straightforward news report with centrist bias.

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