Disaster In MIssissippi

Friday, May 8, 2026

Night before last south central Mississippi suffered a string of tornadoes doing immense damage.  I have family in the region that are fine – thankfully.  Last night I called local friends here in East Tennessee that also have family in the area and they had not even heard about the storms.  That, dear reader, is a massive media fail.  For the moment, Team Rubicon is likely on the way if not there already.  The United Cajun Navy is also reported on scene.  Please donate.  And now, let the media bashing commence.

I guess the threshold for big time coverage of a tornado outbreak like this is a fatality.  Unless you haunt the various weather outlets this story is a brief hit with a few of the more spectacular shots and the obligatory local talking about it sounding like a train.  Four hundred homes have been destroyed.  400 families displaced, though all gratefully alive.

That’s a big deal.  But then this is rural Mississippi – a state and region most people have tried to ignore since the Civil War.  Unless there is a race angle to a story it is as if Mississippi does not really exist. I was born in the state and due to family there have returned to it frequently throughout my life.  My wife had never been east of the Rocky Mountains until we were married and the first time I took her to Mississippi, sometime in the late 1990’s, she commented that it seemed like it was still recovering from the Civil War.  She had a point.

This nation continues to punish the deep South for that war and the civil rights issues of the 20th century.  It is a prejudice as strong as the prejudice once visited upon people of color, even if differently expressed.  We did more to help our enemies in WWII get back on their feet than we have done for the former Confederacy.

Mississippi is a very red state – also making it anathema to legacy media.  The tornado outbreak in Kentucky of a couple of years ago got massive coverage, but then Kentucky is purple leaning blue, despite its southern status.

But enough – there is no news in anti-Mississippi bias.  But there is news in those left homeless in the wake of this disaster.  As typical, the biggest damage is visited on the poorest – those living in premanufactured housing.  (mobile homes – trailers)  They need our help.  Please remember, Mississippi is a small place.  The population of the entire state is a little less than three million.  Displacing 400 families in such an environment is significant.  That also means they have fewer local resources to deal with a disaster like this.

Please watch this story and do what you can to help.  We’ll keep you posted and resources for later in the recovery become available.