Recovery efforts continue in Selmer
SELMER, Tenn. — Recovery and assistance continues in Selmer following the devastating damage from the recent storms.
Selmer Community Center
As recovery efforts continue in Selmer, there’s one place that’s really focusing as a Hub for the community right now. That is the community center in Selmer.
The Salvation Army was present on Friday morning. They say they are giving out meals to anyone that needs them.
“We’ve got some teams here ready to serve. We will be serving three meals a day throughout the week. Families can come, utility workers, first responders, law enforcement can come and they can all get meals here,” said Major John T. Edmonds, corps officer/pastor for the Salvation Army.
This place has been available for food, shelter, sleeping, pretty much everything you need and it took a lot of hands to pull this off so quickly.
“It was huge. It was a sad time, but it was an exciting time to see people coming together and to make things happen. It was an awesome, awesome endeavor yesterday. It was good,” said Pastor Ernest Folk with St. James Baptist Church.
There are so many different things that this place can help you out with. It doesn’t matter what it is. Leaders say to show up and they will be able to assist you.
“They also do notification, I believe because there are still some people missing. We also do feeding here. Then they can come together, as the pastor said, they’ll have community meetings letting the families know what is going on,” said Edmonds.
Of course there’s still a long road ahead to recover, however there’s no doubt many people have had their hands on doing anything that they are able to do. The address for the Selmer Community Center is 205 North 5th street.
McNairy County Agricultural Event Center
Another central location for recovery efforts in Selmer has been the McNairy County Agricultural Event Center.
Piles and piles of donations have come to the McNairy County Agricultural Event Center. If you need something, it’s going to be here. There has been so many people that have brought anything for anyone during this time of need.
“We’ve got people donating water, clothes — everything that you can think of. This is the designated drop off center for Selmer today,” said Chris Whitten, volunteer.
While donations have been beyond plentiful, there are still some specific items that are more needed than others at this time.
“We have had a lot of stuff donated. Really, the main needs are stuff that people don’t think about. Men’s and women’s underwear. All sizes. Kids — up until the biggest size you can buy, batteries, flashlights, candles, some socks, kids socks, kids shoes — all the way to women’s shoes, men’s shoes. We’ve got clothes that people are donating, water, snacks, but really it’s underwear, socks and stuff like that,” said Whitten.
There’s not really a set time for people to donate or to pick things up. There’s people here early in the morning to late at night just looking to help out.
“They can come as early as they want to. If nobody is up here, they can leave it right here on the patio or wherever. If they can’t get in the gate you can leave it out there. We’re usually here between 8 [a.m.] to 8:30 [a.m.] until we decide to go home,” said Whitten.
There has just been incredible support here at the ag center of not only donations, but volunteers as well.
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