Bad weather made 2011 a year to forget. The losses from tornadoes, flooding and drought are still being calculated. In April, the state suffered one of the worst tornado outbreaks in history. Hardest hit was the Town of Smithville, a community of less than 1,000 that was hit by an EF-5 tornado on April 27 [...] [...]
Smithville’s business district is on track to recover from the strongest tornado to strike Mississippi in nearly half a century. But whether or not that recovery is permanent could hinge on the future routing of Mississippi Highway 25. The Mississippi Legislature has already approved a controlled-access realignment of a stretch of the highway from Amory [...] [...]
Days are good in Smithville again. People there see sky above and ground below — that adds up to a happy circumstance if your world has been flipped upside down in deadly fashion. Returning to normal from the death and destruction that roared down Main Street at 3:44 in the afternoon on April 27 still [...] [...]
In any business you figure on periods of slow sales, rising costs and tight credit. But you never expect to be in the path of the strongest tornado to strike your state in nearly half a century and see all you have worked for left in ruins. Cutting your losses and walking away has to [...] [...]
In our inaugural Businessperson of the Year award, we are honoring the grit and guile of two Smithville small business ownerships, who stared down a community-destroying EF-5 tornado. Theirs, along with all but two businesses, were destroyed last April. But Phillip and Tiffany Lockhart of Doughbellys Pizzeria and Bobby and Melanie Edwards of Mel’s Diner [...] [...]
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