Columbus still recovering six months after tornado

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Friday marked the six month anniversary of the Columbus tornado.

On February 23, a tornado ripped through parts of Columbus, leaving devastation and debris in its wake.

The recovery process began almost immediately, but six months later, Lowndes County EMA Director Cindy Lawrence said they’re still clearing hurdles.

“It has been a very long process. One of the issues that we’ve been dealing with is the lack of insurance by homeowners or renters, and because of that, we are using a lot of our volunteer agency. The agency that we’ve set up now is the Columbus Recovery Committee. That has been set up to help assist those persons that are homeowners that may fall short with the insurance or don’t have any insurance at all,” said Lawrence.

That night is still fresh in the mind of the pastor of First Pentecostal Church.

“My son was at my house and so, because we were watching the storm with their kids at our house, so we got in my truck and got there as soon as possible, and we saw debris scattered all the way from Highway 12, all the way up through to the church. When we turned in off of Highway 50, near Tuscaloosa Road down into our driveway, it was just unbelievable the sight that we saw. It was devastating and heartbreaking you know the storm came on Saturday night we had planned a Baptism on that Sunday,” said Pastor Steve Blaylock.

Lawrence said the road to recovery has not been a short one.

“The process is very long, here we are six months later, and you go through some of the neighborhoods you still see some of the houses that are still sitting there and of course, some houses have been torn down, have, you know, debris on the side of the road, some of the construction that is from some of the houses that have been torn down, but we’ve still got a long way to go with this disaster” said Lawrence.

Pastor Blaylock has faith in his church’s future.

“Three years from now we will have our new facility built, we’ll have it completed, it’s going to be a beautiful facility it’s going to be a modern building it’s not going to be a traditional church building,” said Pastor Blaylock.

We are still wishing everyone well on their recovery efforts.