A Mississippi family that survived the 2023 Rolling Fork tornado has received a donated concrete safe room built to withstand a Category 5 storm.
Here's what to know
For Brad Nicholson's family, the new shelter means a purpose-built place to ride out future tornadoes instead of relying on in-the-moment survival maneuvers, WJTV reported.
Organizers say the project brought Mississippi's first safe room to Rolling Fork, where they held a ribbon-cutting for the donated shelter.
The recipient family survived a 2023 tornado that killed 16 people in Rolling Fork and Silver City.
Oz Saferooms built the shelter, which was donated by the National Storm Chaser Summit. Designed to hold five people, the concrete safe room is rated for an F5 tornado.
"These safe rooms have 18-inch-thick ceilings, 8-inch-thick walls, and a 10-inch-thick base," Oz Saferooms CEO Andrew Zagorski said.
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The National Storm Chaser Summit selected Oz Saferooms because the company's shelters had already performed well during a major storm.
According to the group, the same model survived a direct hit from an EF-5 tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, and protected the people inside.
The Rolling Fork installation serves both as a donation to one family and as a public example of storm-resilient design in a region that knows the cost of severe weather.
More background
When the tornado struck, Nicholson said, his wife was at a local restaurant, and she and their daughter ended up trapped beneath a collapsed roof.
Nicholson added that his wife spent more than an hour holding the roof off their daughter before storm chasers Erik Fox and Eric Cole arrived and removed the debris.
"My wife and friends of ours from the Mexican restaurant very likely would have perished had they not been there and with their expertise saved many lives," Nicholson recalled.
Across the Mississippi Delta, tornadoes can leave families with only minutes to react.
A shelter rated for violent storms can mean the difference between taking cover in a vulnerable building and having a dedicated reinforced space on-site.
What's being done?
The National Storm Chaser Summit organized the safe-room donation.
After Nicholson retold the family's experience, Fox said that the National Storm Chaser Summit would continue focusing on Rolling Fork and the Delta before and after severe weather.
Fox's goal is to secure safe rooms for every resident of Rolling Fork and the broader Delta.
"Honestly, the Mississippi Delta sometimes I think is forgotten. And so as a summit, my pledge is to Rolling Fork and into the Delta for sure so you won't be forgotten. If you need help, reach out," he told the station.
The effort focuses on installing hardened safe rooms already tested in extreme conditions, rather than relying on luck, last-minute sheltering, or storm-damaged buildings.
"The things that we witnessed that night, I hope nobody here or on Earth will ever have to witness," Fox began.
"Unfortunately, it does [happen]. We can't stop tornadoes, we can't stop earthquakes, we can't stop hurricanes. But what you can do is be prepared."
Where can I learn more?
Elsewhere, communities dealing with destructive storms are investing in safer shelter and recovery.
• In West Central Texas, homeowners can get up to $3,000 back for safe rooms and storm shelters.
• In Alabama, a homeowner found that $20,000 wasn't enough to create an underground tornado shelter.
• In Flagler County, officials opened a $10 million hurricane shelter for 500 evacuees.
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