Already impacted areas prep for additional storms

MCNAIRY COUNTY, Tenn. — Parts of West Tennessee are still recovering from the impact of Friday’s storms, and now they’re preparing for the storm threat coming Wednesday.

With the storm threat coming, residents are preparing for what is to come despite already being affected tremendously by last week’s tornadoes.

Holly Kennamore, a resident of McNairy County said, she is ready to overcome the next threat.

“We’ve got everything put up and, you know, all of our outside stuff that was there is now gone. So we’ve managed to clean up what we can and we’ve got a storm shelter in our home,” Kennamore said.

Kennamore said it is necessary to prepare ahead of time for what’s to come and be weather aware at all times.

“It was pretty bad, and it was pretty scary. So have everything charged up and be able to get weather alerts and notifications from several different ways, and then, just make sure that you have your place ready to go,” Kennamore said.

First Baptist Church of Bethel Springs, who has been serving the community with food and essentials, is encouraging the community to continue donating to help those in need and to further help for future weather events.

“It’s a sad situation around here, but it’s a small community, and they’ve all pulled together to help everybody get cleaned up. And it’s really heartwarming to see what all we’ve done, but we just need to keep going and rebuild,” said Vonda Burns, a disaster coordinator.

Community members are grateful for the help and support received in the days following the storms.

“We just want to thank everybody that has volunteered, made donations, and worked. Just everything that has been given to us. But most of all, we want to thank people, everyone out there, for their prayers because we know that from these prayers, we’ve been able to bless these people and in turn those people have blessed us way more than we could ever bless them,” Burns said.

Shelters in the area that will be open to the public include the community center in Selmer, along with the American Red Cross. It can be found at 230 North Fifth Street in Selmer.

Remember to stay weather aware these next few days, and don’t wait until the last minute to take precautions.

Find live radar, hour-by-hour forecasts and more in the WBBJ Weather app.