Power companies send aid; church gathers supplies


Thursday, May 5, 2011
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Power companies send aid; church gathers supplies

By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer

Photo by Sue Watson

Members of the Thomas family accept donations for tornado victims at a trailer parked outside Thomas LP Gas. A list of items needed is in the story below. Dropping off goods is Debbie Moore.

Mother nature can’t out-give God, it seems, as local power associations and utilities sent crews to restore electricity to neighboring counties and one church group organized a relief effort for residents of Smithville.

While people in Holly Springs were carrying money and supplies to fill a trailer destined for Smithville, organized by Heritage Apostolic Church, local utilities returned home after several days of helping North East Mississippi Electric Power and Tippah Electric restore power to areas hit by winds. In Lafayette and Calhoun counties, communities were bruised by ragged trees twisted off by the trunks or those whose root balls became over saturated and toppled.

Last week’s heavy thunderstorms hit the southern states hard, sweeping through Northpointe in Oxford and downing power lines and trees there and also in the southeast portion of Lafayette County in the Highway 9 area. Holly Springs Utility Department sent several linemen and groundmen and several line trucks and bucket trucks to work four days last week in Oxford, according to George Humphreys with the utility. They finished up work Sunday afternoon and came home.

Margaret Shoffner, with NorthCentral Electric Power, said the company sent six workers to Tippah Electric for one day and 12 to North East Electric on Friday. They were finishing up in the Oxford area Monday, she said. They sent line crews and equipment.

In town, word got around on Facebook that Heritage Apostolic Church was getting up a load of items for Smithville, a town of about 800 residents in Northeast Mississippi that was wiped out by a tornado Wednesday.

Tornado relief donations are now being taken at Thomas LP Gas, 115 West Van Dorn Avenue, in Holly Springs. Items needed include toiletries, medical supplies, paper products, diapers, baby food, towels and wash cloths, hand sanitizer, tarps, non-perishable food, water, flashlights and first aid kits.

Please, no clothes, but monetary donations are accepted with 100 percent of the money going to tornado victims.

Organizer Kevin Thomas said the trailer would leave as soon as it is loaded.

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