By Bill Carey
Police1
ROLLING FORK, Miss. — Officers in the Rolling Fork Police Department are struggling to rebuild as they continue to protect the residents of the Mississippi town nearly destroyed by a tornado.
Last week, an EF-4 tornado ripped through the town. The police station was among the many houses and structures decimated. Half of the building was reduced to rubble, with bricks and cinder blocks strewn about and mixed in with broken desks, ruined computers and other office furniture, WLBT reported.
“We had a fleet of six units, we are down to two. We need TASERs. We definitely need flashlights, radios,” said Assistant Chief Herbert Caesar. “We probably need computers, definitely computers.”
Some material and assistance is already at work in Rolling Fork. A mobile command unit has been brought in from another department.
Three officers and three members of the chaplain team from the Jackson (Miss.) Police Department came to Rolling Fork and surveyed the damage.
“They don’t have vehicles to operate their police department. They lost all their intel, such as their vests and walkie talkies [and] different things like that,” said Jackson PD Sgt. Fredric Suttles.
Going on about two hours of sleep since the tornado flattened much of his town, Caesar says he and his fellow officers are now tasked with not only protecting the community they love, but rebuilding.
“We’re not turning down anything. And if we don’t need it now, pretty sure we’re gonna need it later on,” said Caesar.
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