MSU Extension agents, locations aid storm response

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- During weather-related emergencies, Mississippi State University Extension locations often serve as warming stations, distribution sites for basic supplies and bases of operation for first responders, but for the state’s community-based educational agency, its people remain the most important resource.

As communities across north Mississippi continue recovering from the Jan. 23-27 winter storm, MSU Extension coordinators and agents have been assisting local officials, county emergency managers and first responders since before the storm to help those in need.

On Feb. 4, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported 438 homes, 30 businesses, and 23 farms in 51 of the state’s counties had been damaged or destroyed. Utility crews continue to restore power and were down to around 27,000 outages after a peak of about 180,000.

In many of the affected counties, Extension offices have served as warming centers, overnight shelters or coordination hubs. Staff have worked with local governments to secure generators, maintain critical research facilities and support infrastructure needs where power and gas failures have been severe.

Brandon Alberson is one of many MSU Extension agents who have relied on the disaster response training they have received to serve in mass care and individual assistance efforts during and after disasters. He is based in Tippah County, one of the hardest hit areas, and was working with county emergency management coordinator Tom Lindsey to prepare for the storm well before it caused major damage to a main transmission line that has rendered much of the county without electricity.

“Our office is on the county fairgrounds, and we have a couple of buildings there we use for meeting spaces that we were able to repurpose into warming centers by hooking one of the county’s generators up to the building,” Alberson said. “Our use of social media has been vital in getting information out when we had warming centers running and where meals were being served.”

Once the freezing rain and ice passed through the area, he worked hand in hand with local first responders, nonprofits and faith-based organizations to set up a supply distribution site outside of the office where people could pick up food and water. Meals were also delivered to residents who were unable to leave their homes.

“Sometimes just a good warm meal can help people just as much as anything else,” Alberson said. “Over three days, volunteers distributed about 9,000 meals. I’m very proud of how everyone in our community has pulled together.”

Similar work is ongoing in Grenada County, said MSU Extension coordinator Michael Pruden.

“We assisted the county by preparing and providing cooked meals to shelters serving more than 70 residents,” Pruden said. “We also partnered with the Farm Bureau to supply educational and coloring materials for youth at the shelters and collaborated with the Red Cross to help distribute meals throughout the community.”

Personnel with MSU Extension and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station prepared a staging area and mobile command center at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to store generators for public buildings and health care facilities in the state’s many affected counties. Teams with the Mississippi National Guard are stationed at MSU Extension’s Lafayette County office. Lafayette is also among the hardest hit counties in the state.

“Both Extension and MAFES are reliable partners with people who have gone through training over the years to prepare for these scenarios,” said Jane Parish, head of the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center. “Helping establish a mobile command center for the Corps is one example of our people always being willing to rise to the occasion.”

Lance Newman, MSU Extension northeast regional coordinator, said coordinators and agents in his coverage area showed exemplary community leadership in working with their county supervisors and emergency managers to help residents met their basic needs.

“Our main priority is our people -- our agents and staff. We made sure they were safe first, and then they stepped up without hesitation and did what they do every day -- just in a different role,” Newman said. “They did whatever it took, whether it was checking on neighbors, delivering propane to elderly residents or working with local partners and nonprofits to meet basic needs.”

Shortly after this winter storm and other natural disasters, numerous volunteer organizations rush to affected areas to help victims rebuild. MEMA coordinates local response team missions, and MSU Extension is one of the agencies written into MEMA’s comprehensive emergency management plan to respond to disasters. 

The weather emergency’s recovery is entering a new phase focused on damage assessment, debris clean-up and disposal. Extension strike teams and county coordinators and agriculture and natural resource agents will work with local county emergency managers and local U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency officials.

“Our forestry specialists are doing online trainings for our agents coming up in the next few weeks to get our agents up to speed on questions they can expect from timber managers who incurred major loss in their forests and anyone who might have tree damage at home,” Newman said. “We will continue to help educate our producers and help clients work through the process of recovering from this.”