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Local departments respond to Miller's Ferry disaster
"Clarke County 911 got the call from Wilcox County about 1 p.m. for all available assistance. I Linced the EMA director there and she had just come on the scene. She saw all the homes that were destroyed and said they needed all available assistance," Clarke County EMA Director Roy Waite said. Responding from Jackson were Jackson Police officers Arvis Slack and Ben Marshall, three ambulances from JETS (Jackson Emergency Transport Service), Truck 3, with 10 to 12 firefighters from the Jackson Fire Department, as well as personnel from Jackson Medical Center and Hometown Hospice. The Jackson Rescue Squad sent personnel as well, but was turned back shortly before arriving on the scene because the director of operations reported that there was adequate personnel to handle the situation. According to JETS Director Kevin Brunson, the areas of Clarke and Washington counties the company covers never went without service thanks to cooperation with other departments. In Washington County, the McIntosh Rescue Squad staffed an additional ambulance and sent another unit to Chatom. "We still had four of our trucks in Clarke County," added Brunson. Clarke County's mass casualty trailer was taken to the scene by Jackson firefighter Harold Everhart, just in case, but luckily it wasn't needed. "It was very fortunate that the homes there are mainly weekend and vacation homes. There was only one fatality," said Waite. The tornado, which blew in at 142 mph, was 40 yards wide and 15 miles long, destroyed over 30 houses and mobile homes. Because most of the homes there were second homes the area will probably not be declared an individual disaster area, but may be declared a public disaster area, which means there may be some assistance available through FEMA for debris clean-up. "My job there was to assist Joyce [Williams, Wilcox County EMA director] with resource management. It was difficult for me. You want to go in and organize things the way you want to and my job was just to assist her." Waite said following the initial and secondary search for victims they began to let responders return to Clarke County. "In addition to the 134 who came to the scene there were 195 first responders on stand-by in case we needed them." Those responders included personnel from Clarke County EMA, Thomasville, Jackson, Fulton, Grove Hill, West Bend/Bethel, Tri-Community, Coffeeville and Tallahatta/Opine fire departments, Clarke County Extension Office, Jackson Medical Center, Jackson Emergency Transport, Jackson Rescue Squad, Clarke County Economic Development, Clarke-Mobile Gas, Hometown Hospice, Larry Jones Logging, Clarke County Road and Bridge Department, city of Thomasville, Thomasville, Grove Hill and Fulton police departments and Clarke County Sheriff's Department. Waite said he and Bill Gibson, the EMA director in Choctaw County, have evaluated the situation and have learned what resources their own counties had lacked. "This has been a learning tool for us. There were certain resources we needed over there that were not immediately accessible. It didn't take us long to get what we needed once we sent out a call for it, but it would have made it easier to have some things right there. Our biggest difficulty was communications. We were all using our Lincs to communicate and because there were so many people in the area trying to talk to one another it was hard to get through sometimes. "These people were really lucky. The tornado that hit Miller's Ferry was actually bigger than the one that hit Enterprise. I highly recommend everyone get a weather service radio. It is the fastest method of getting a warning. We've got good coverage in the county and they work everywhere. I can't stress it enough."
(SA Editor Evan Carden contributed to this report)
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