The remnants of the local American Red Cross chapter sent amessage to its former four-county area last week by proving itstill has the ability to respond to major incidents.

The volunteers of the Mid-South Mississippi Service DeliveryArea – the former Mid-South Mississippi Chapter headquartered inBrookhaven – were assessing damage and distributing relief suppliesin Roxie before a storm producing straight-line winds and apossible tornado that damaged and destroyed several structures evenpassed, Red Cross officials said.

“The Red Cross was there,” said Robin Mays, community programsdirector for Hattiesburg’s South Central Mississippi, the parentorganization of the local service area. “They were out literallybefore the winds died down.”

Mays said the storm in Roxie, which by Red Cross calculationsdamaged 16 mobile homes and affected 60 people, was the firstmulti-family incident that has occurred in the service area ofFranklin, Lawrence, Lincoln and Pike counties since the Mid-Southchapter disbanded in September. If the storm served as a test ofthe local Red Cross’ ability, Mays said the service area volunteersresponded well.

“It was a middle-of-the-night disaster, and we were out the nextday,” she said. “The services were delivered in a timelyfashion.”

Franklin County’s Hilda Peeler, a member of the board ofdirectors for the former chapter, said the damage she assessed wasextensive. She described an early-morning scene of twisted metal,homes knocked off foundations, trees fallen on vehicles, bustedwater and gas lines and power outages.

“One house in particular, I walked in the bedroom, and there satthe bed on the floor but there was no walls and no roof,” Peelersaid. “Your heart goes out to them, because a lot of these peopledid not have insurance. You say a house has minor damage, but whenthere’s water leaking through the roof in three places and noinsurance, that’s major to them.”

Despite the widespread damage in an area no longer served by itsown independent Red Cross chapter, Peeler said the organization’sresponse did not falter.

She and five other Red Cross members performed the expectedduties of damage assessment and case management, passing out waterand food and helping dislocated residents find shelter. TheHattiesburg’s chapter’s emergency response vehicle also arrived tohelp distribute food, Peeler said.

“It just went click, click, click – everything fell in place aswe worked,” she said. “[The disbanding of the chapter] has neveraffected Franklin County. We’re on call 24 hours a day, seven daysa week.”

Peeler said the strength of the Franklin County’s Red Crosspersonnel is infused with the community’s volunteering spirit, andshe said those same bonds also exist in Lawrence, Lincoln and Pikecounties. She hopes the organization’s show of strength in Roxiewill help it draw more volunteers and speed up the plannedreestablishment of the Mid-South Mississippi Chapter.

“If we have another major catastrophe, we’ll respond,” Peelersaid. “All they have to do is call.”

Hattiesburg chapter executive director Janice Vannatta, thede-facto boss of the local service delivery area, said she waspleased with the nature of the Roxie response, pointing out that itoutlined the need for a chapter in the area.

“The chapter still works,” she said. “The volunteers are stillthere, and they still want to meet the mission of the RedCross.”

Vannatta said efforts to strengthen the delivery area wouldcontinue alongside efforts to bring back the chapter.

She said several interviews have been conducted in search of twopart-time employees to man the forthcoming service delivery areaoffices in McComb and Brookhaven. Office space has been acquired inMcComb, she said, though the search continues in Brookhaven.