More than three months after a tornado struck a small Mississippi town, the new residents started rebuilding their homes.
On April 27, EF-5 tornado, the highest rating on a scale of scientific tornado, wiping the majority of Smithville, Miss., killing 17 people and left one square mile city a mess. The post office, town hall, police station, four churches, 15 businesses, and more than 100 were all destroyed by winds of 200 mph.....
Now the city is being rebuilt their city Army Corps of Engineers has finished cleaning up 26,000 tons a few weeks ago, and only a few rows of concrete slabs from houses and empty plots and Selling a previously lined the streets.
community groups have been meeting to develop an idea of what their city schools, homes, businesses, streets, and society could be like. Last week, all of Smithville are invited to look at all ideas dan'diletakkan groups on poster board to take a vote and what their city will look like using green and red stickers.?
"This is an opportunity for someone to come and see what happens, and take a green sticker if they like and put it in there, and took a red sticker if they do not like it. We will take all this information back, and compile it, and put it into in our master plan, "said Smithville Mayor Gregg Kennedy.
Getting people to rebuild, and used as an investment in it, is the first and most important step in the rebuilding process, according to Kennedy.
Meanwhile, there are no specific plans, anticipated changes include expanding the current Main Street from two lanes to five lines; the downtown area with shops and roadside trading; state-of-the-art, high tech, green-energy K-12 schools ; and multi-sport recreation area where the baseball field in a ruined city.
Residents Johnny and Teresa Snow said the tornado blew the roof and most of the back of their house which was built in 24 years worth of memories into
When the storm hit, Teresa said she was on the phone with her daughter, Brandy. Sitting in the bathtub, holding a 10-month old dog, Sweetie, to his chest, with pillows and blankets over their heads, Teresa told her daughter approaching tornado - he can feel it. A few seconds later, Brandy heard his mother scream, and then - the phone disconnected.
Three weeks ago they could go home when they received a FEMA trailer to live in their new home to completion. "We hope to start a new home may be another month or more. We are very excited about it," says Teresa. "We're beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel as well."
The rebuilding has been going on all over town A few houses and already has a frame up, and foundations are being poured every day.
All these are words that come to the ears of Kennedy, who estimates that nearly half of the urban population of 900 will not come back to rebuild.
"The day a tornado, just before the tornado hit, we will take 100 years to get where we're at it, and within 10 seconds it is gone. So now we are faced with rebuilding our cities for the next generation, and the next, next generation, and that's what we do here, "Kennedy said.
For Johnny, who has been called home Smithville for more than 50 years, come back and rebuild was never a question. "This is home," he said, adding that people are what makes this community so special, and that he and his wife hope that more of them to decide again.
"When we start seeing all the houses ... it will be interesting, and I think it will help people who may not have made the decision to return, when they see some of us began to build," says Teresa.
Kennedy said that there may be at least 10 years before all the redevelopment will be done, and the mayor emphasized that it will happen gradually Part of the funds been available, and which will come from state agencies and federal, and private industry.
But only decided to return and rebuild is not easy to do. Every day, when you are driving on the main road you are reminded of what happened 27 April Teresa explained.
"It's hard to see the despair and constantly see the damage. And you rarely come back here without, or do I still get very emotional at times when I saw, when I lost my bearings and I do not know what path I should refused. "
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