Talking to Tina Reed about the response to tornado damage in Walthall County and Pike County brought back memories of when this information used to come from Madelyn Dick, one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met.
Mrs. Dick was the civil defense director when I started work in McComb in 1983. She took the job after her husband, Arsene, the longtime civil defense director, died unexpectedly.
Madelyn had this gruff demeanor, which to be very candid was very intimidating to a brand-new reporter. But it was a front.
Once you got to know her, and she got to know you, she was great at both friendly conversation and local news. She was willing to provide details for news stories, and her quotes were golden.
She retired in 1994 and died in 2006. She came to mind when I asked Reed about her job title: Was she the civil defense director, or the emergency management agency director?
The “civil defense” term dates to the 1950s, when the country set up plans for the public in case of nuclear war. Seven decades in, nobody has fired any missiles. But tornadoes and hurricanes never have gone away.
“Civil defense is kind of going out of style, and we’re kind of going over to an emergency management agency,” Reed remarked.
By whatever name, I was curious to see how Reed graded the response to the March 15 tornadoes in Walthall County, one of which also went through the southeast corner of Pike County.
“I felt like our response was pretty good,” she said. “As soon as the storm cleared, we had firemen out to get roads cleared.”
Walthall County got help rapidly from its neighbors, too.
“As soon as our sheriff’s department realized we were pretty good here, they went over to Walthall County,” Reed said. “Not long after, the EMA directors from Amite County and Lincoln County went to help. They helped the director there, Royce McKee, get through the first night.
“The first night is always the hardest,” she added. “Our sheriff and deputies were over there helping, and then all the other help started rolling in about daybreak Sunday.”
Reed has plenty of experience in emergencies: seven years in Copiah County, 13 years at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, and now in her sixth year in Pike County. She succeeded Richard Coghlan when he retired as director a year ago.
She said emergency management has come a long way since Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago, when the entire southern half of Mississippi received more damage than anyone thought possible.
“It pushed us to refine the response,” Reed said. “It’s sad to say, but the more of these you do, the better you get at it. I keep a notebook, and the things that I did for this one, I already know what my steps are for the next one.”
She believes an immediate local response is the most important part of helping people whose lives have been upended with little warning.
“All emergencies, whether they are weather-related or otherwise, they start local,” Reed said. “We have to get out, clear the roads, meet people.
“We’re the first people they see when the need help. FEMA might come in later, but these people are still going to remember the faces that came out to check on them.
“Pike County has gotten better,” she said. “I like to think that people here know if something happens, we’re going to be there to get them the help they need.”
Reed said the most memorable thing she saw during the past week was when she was among the officials working on damage assessment.
She saw people checking on neighbors and bringing food to anyone who needed it. In one case, neighbors retrieved a man in Progress who had been trapped under his house. After they freed him, they put him on a mattress and carried him to a local church for medical attention.
“It reminded me of how neighbors used to check on neighbors,” Reed said. “So much of that has gone away. But not among the people in Progress.”
There’s a lot of cleaning up and rebuilding to do. It’s going to take a while. But the work is off to a good start. Madelyn Dick really would be proud.
