MONROE COUNTY, MS – When the strongest tornado to hit Mississippi in more than 50 years tore through the small town of Smithville on April 27, 2011, 16-year old Audrey Herren and her younger sister Cassidy, 11, knew what to do, and it probably saved their lives. They went into emergency mode – covered themselves with blankets and huddled on the floor of an inside hallway – and emerged virtually unscathed from a home that had disintegrated around them.
“I had heard the saying that a tornado sounds like an oncoming freight train,” said Audrey, “but I’ve never heard a freight train that sounded just like that, or that loud.” The deafening sound, along with the violent buffeting of the wind, made it “more than scary” she continued, as her reticent sister nodded in agreement. Both girls recalled the smell of newly cut wood and the taste of dirt being swirled through the air by the twister. Though the tornado raced through Smithville in less than a minute, to the Herren sisters it seemed like forever.
April 27 started off on an ominous note as the town’s siren was sounded several times during the morning to warn residents of the approaching severe weather system. As the potential threat to Smithville became more certain, the 600 students in the town’s K-12 school complex were released early, at approximately 2 p.m. Parents Jim and Carol Herren were at work at the time, but they had learned via broadcast warnings and access to radar images of the storm that Smithville was in the path of a possible tornado. They called their daughters and told them to exercise their emergency plan, which they had put to use during earlier severe thunderstorms as recently as the previous week.
The tornado reached Smithville at 3:44 p.m., roaring through the middle of town with peak winds estimated at 205 miles per hour. Most buildings were flattened, including more than 150 homes, 14 businesses, and 2 churches. Seventeen people lost their lives, either during the tornado or later as a result of injuries.
During the Herren sisters’ brief but harrowing experience on the hallway floor, Audrey received just a few minor scratches on her hand when moving debris as she and Cassidy made their way out of their demolished home. Cassidy was physically unharmed, but both girls were surely emotionally shaken. They were able to contact their parents to let them know they were unharmed and safe. When the Herrens reached Smithville about an hour after the tornado struck, their daughters were not at their home (or what was left of it) as they had been told to move away from the area because of possible gas leaks. They connected with the girls later. The Herren family was able to save a bit of clothing from their home, but none of their furnishings could be salvaged. Most importantly their daughters had survived the storm.
“Everybody in town has a tornado story,” said Carol Herren, “but unfortunately, many didn’t turn out as positive as ours.” And although her family didn’t have a safe room at the time of the tornado, she is glad they had an emergency plan and that the plan likely saved her daughters.
The Herren family had occupied their home along Mississippi Highway 25, the main road through Smithville, for about 13 years. They are now living in a rented home that is just outside the tornado’s path of destruction. They plan to begin construction of safe room in a new home within the next few weeks that will specifically comply with the design criteria in FEMA 361, Design and Construction Guidance for Community Safe Rooms. They know several other neighbors who plan to do the same, and Jim Herren says he hopes that many others will decide to stay and rebuild in Smithville.
And what about the coming school year for the children of Smithville, whose school was severely damaged by the April tornado? Audrey will be a high-school senior and Cassidy will be entering 7th grade. The town plans to open school on schedule using modular units as classrooms. Plans also include the Monroe County School District leasing more than 19 acres of underdeveloped land from Monroe County in Smithville to set up a temporary campus for Smithville Attendance Center.
For additional information, contact the FEMA Safe Room Help Line at 866-222-3580 or at saferoom@dhs.gov. The help line provides information on where to go for assistance regarding hazard mitigation grants and other grant funding, project eligibility, and guidelines for safe room construction. FEMA’s safe room web site (http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/saferoom) is another source of information.