North Texas disaster response teams send assistance to Mississippi tornado victims

MISSISSIPPI (CBSNewsTexas.com) – North Texas disaster response teams are preparing to spend several weeks in Mississippi after last week’s powerful tornados, even as severe weather is possible again later this week.

Minuteman Disaster Response had at least two dozen volunteers deploying to Amory, MS, where an EF-3 tornado touched down Friday. 

Setting up a command center Monday in town, Randy Rogan said the devastation was “unbelievable.” He expected teams to spend most of their time clearing debris from properties.

“We’ll have chain saw crews going, we’ll have people pulling behind those chain saw crews,” he said. “We’re bringing in skid steer tractors with grapple hooks, to be able to move this stuff.”

John Hall with Texas Baptist Men said he expected in some cases their teams would just be pushing debris off foundations.

“In many of these towns, in many of these cities, this is a complete restart,” he said.

Hall said the immediate response would last weeks, if not months.