Hernando storm cleanup underway

Hernando city leaders know there will be weeks ahead of them in cleaning up and recovering from the severe storms that came through the city late Sunday night, May 18. The storms struck about 10:30 p.m. and crews were already on the ground an hour later starting the cleanup, according to Mayor Chip Johnson. 

But the work ahead will be lengthy and Johnson said it is too soon to know how much the bill will be for picking up and removing the broken trees, as well as rebuilding homes that were damaged when the trees fell.  

“I do not have any indications yet,” Johnson said after the city’s Board of Aldermen meeting on Tuesday, May 20.   We haven’t slowed down enough to count. We are hoping that there will be some FEMA funds available. We don’t know if there will be.”

Johnson added that DeSoto County Emergency Services compile the dollar amounts and work on the entire county’s behalf to get the damage amounts from the county, including Hernando, into the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to determine the amount of government assistance.  

When Mayor Johnson called a special meeting about 12:30 a.m. Monday morning, a state of emergency was declared to allow the city to bring in extra help to help in the cleanup. 

“The emergency declaration led us to hire an outside company to help us pick up and help us cut trees,” Johnson said. “We’re working on that but as we pick it up, people are pulling stuff out of their backyards to the street every day. So things will just keep coming to the street for a long time, but we’ll get it picked up as quickly as we can.”

The vast majority of the damage comes from the strong straight line winds that blew through with heavy rain. But a brief EF-1 tornado with 95 mile per hour winds touched down in the area of Thousand Oaks Drive and Jaybird Road during the storm. 

Johnson has expressed the city’s gratitude for the work of its Public Works Department, saying staff has been prepared to respond to these events.    

“Our staff actually went to some classes on disaster recovery,” Johnson said. “We sent some people down for a class on disaster recovery. We’ll never be completely prepared, but we’re a lot better prepared, so I’m very proud of the team, and they are a team.”