Hoping for a better tomorrow

Efforts to begin cleaning up areas that were affected by Monday’s statewide severe weather conditions were in full swing yesterday as thousands of volunteers and workers came together with one common goal: to restore peace and order within their communities.

In the city of Tupelo, ground zero for the EF-3 tornadic activity was the historic residential community known by locals as the Joyner Neighborhood. Housing close to 1000 city residents who live in about 900 homes, much of the once charming and quaint area now appears to be leveled and uninhabitable.

Despite the visible ailments that scar the community, the potent scent of freshly cut pine and magnolia trees along with the constant buzzing of chainsaws provide the people of the neighborhood with an increasing hope for a better tomorrow.

When Joyner resident and local real estate agent Wesley Webb first caught news that a tornado warning had been issued for Lee County, his immediate reaction was to leave his Clayton Avenue home and find safety.

“When I left here I didn’t think it was going to be that bad,” Webb said. “You don’t ever think it’s going to be you.”

Webb said calls from concerned family and friends immediately ensued when the warning was lifted. When he tried to travel back to his residence, he was unable to gain access to the necessary roads.

Hoping for a better tomorrow from Logan Kirkland on Vimeo.

When he finally saw what was left of his house, he could not believe his eyes. The once erect structure now sat in a number of pieces.

“There’s no way they would have survived,” said Webb’s family friend, James Beasley. “No matter where they would have been in the house, they wouldn’t have survived it.”

While some Joyner residents like Webb were able to avoid the tornado’s line of fire by taking cover in alternate locations, many hunkered down for safety in small interior rooms within their homes.

Local body shop owner Chuck Free, his wife Lauren and their five-year-old son Levi were among the residents to ride out the severe weather until it passed through the area.

“We got in the closet and prayed it away,” Lauren Free said. “It just devastated our house. It was horrible.”

Before the storm, a number of massive trees were scattered throughout the Free family’s front and back yards. Following the disaster, not one of these 100-year-old giants still stood.

“A lot of people had said before that (a tornado) sounds like a train coming through,” Chuck Free said. “I didn’t hear a thing until the trees came through. All I heard was a pop from the trees cracking.”

“What I remember hearing is the sound of the trees landing on our house, and the limbs shooting through our roof. I heard that,” Lauren Free said. “Then with all the rain coming through the holes, it sounded like a waterfall in our living room.”

Lauren Free admitted to being in full shock while the unstoppable damage was occurring to her home. Her young son Levi shared the same feelings of panic and fear.

“He was screaming,” she said. “At one point he said, ‘I’m brave. I’m brave.’ And then he asked if we could start praying. When it was over, he didn’t even want to leave the closet. He was too scared to come out.

“He held on to me for quite some time afterwards just following me around the house. He wouldn’t let me go. He went around the rest of the day just saying, ‘I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it.’ I don’t think he’ll forget this experience. ”

When the storm cleared and the Free family was able to fully inspect the irreversible damage that had been done, Lauren Free said what she saw was something she never expected.

“This is something like out of a movie,” she said. “I never expected something like this to happen. You never think it’s going to happen to you. It’s unbelievable.”

Though the Joyner neighborhood is still in vast disarray, members of the community are quickly working together to provide relief to the affected area’s families.

“It’s bad that it takes something this catastrophic to bring folks together, but that’s something you don’t see very often,” said Tommy Beasley, volunteer and life-long Tupelo resident. “They’re giving away free food up here to people helping and everything. You don’t usually see something like this in Tupelo, and for everybody to just come together to help, that means a whole lot.”

In the weeks to come, all residents of Tupelo’s Joyner Neighborhood plan to continue their group effort in cleaning up and repairing the place they call home.

“I’ve been here for a month now in this community and they’re amazing,” Lauren Free said. “They’re friendly. Everybody is so warm and welcoming and just wants to help. They have such a strong desire to help.”