STARKVILLE — The grounds of The Grove apartments were covered in white Tuesday morning as Orion Schertzer sorted through pieces of broken lumber and debris.
But Schertzer wasn”t walking in a winter wonderland. It was insulation from Building 5, and it still covered the parking lot, grass and trees in The Grove more than 72 hours after an EF-1 tornado struck Starkville and damaged more than a dozen structures on the south side of the city.
Six units at The Grove received significant damage after the twister tore the roof off the building during the early morning hours of Jan. 1. Vehicles also were damaged, electricity was knocked out, and residents of the apartment complex off Lynn Lane were stuck in “pitch black” darkness until sunrise, Schertzer recalled Tuesday while he picked through shingles and siding.
“It was pretty bad, but nobody got hurt, which was a blessing,” The Grove manager Holly Henson said.
Members of Oktibbeha-Starkville Emergency Response Volunteer Services arrived at The Grove by 2 a.m. Saturday, shortly after the tornado hit, and provided assistance to 10 displaced residents, OSERVS Director Becky Wilkes said.
“We were out there while everybody else was celebrating New Year”s Eve,” Wilkes said.
The organization put one person in a hotel for the night, Wilkes said. The rest of the displaced residents moved in to available units at the complex.
The Northeast Mississippi Chapter of the American Red Cross also is providing financial assistance to displaced residents for food, clothing and medical needs.
A wall at Green Tree Apartments, located across the street from The Grove, was blown out during the storm. More damage occurred along nearby stretches of Lynn Lane, Miley Drive, Industrial Park Road, Louisville Street, Academy Road and at George M. Bryan Field, among other places.
The tornado Saturday followed a nearly identical path as the Nov. 29 twister, which caused minor damage along Lynn Lane, then devastated The Pines mobile home park on Louisville Street. Fifteen people were injured in the November tornado, but no injuries were reported after the latest round of storms.
Cleanup was ongoing throughout the day Tuesday. Schertzer recalled the harrowing storm experience as he worked outside Building 5. He didn”t take the city”s tornado sirens seriously when they sounded before the November twister, which grazed The Grove, but during the latest round of storms Saturday morning, Schertzer and his family camped out in the bathroom, he said.
“This is twice in a month now we”ve come this close to a tornado,” Schertzer said, then peered at his building across the parking lot.
Henson said she was playing cards with family members in Tupelo when the tornado hit. Then her phone began to ring with calls from panicked residents.
“I thought, ”Oh God, we haven”t even finished repairing from the last one yet,”” Henson said.
The Red Cross provided more than $16,000 in assistance to families in The Pines after the November tornado and sent caseworkers to The Grove Tuesday to assess victims” needs.
“The Red Cross is here and will continue to be here when there is a need,” Northeast Mississippi Red Cross Director Patty Tucker said.
To assist local tornado victims, send donations to the Starkville Red Cross office at 100 Felix Long Drive, Starkville, MS 39759, or call 662-323-4621. Donations also can be sent to Oktibbeha-Starkville Emergency Response Volunteer Services at P.O. Box 443, Starkville, MS 39759.
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