Salvation Army Depends on MC Graduate During Tornado

Days before a deadly tornado slammed into Mississippi, Mark Jones stayed busy coordinating the Salvation Army's public information response.

Since Saturday's powerful storm left ten people dead in the Magnolia State, the Mississippi College graduate is working 19-hour days to get their message out and help victims.

It's all part of his job for Jones as communications director for the Salvation Army's Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi Divisions.

Spending almost the entire week away from his home in Clinton, Jones also turned to help from God. “There was a lot of praying...and staying focused on a greater ministry,” he said.

In short, it's been an incredibly busy few days for Jones as the Salvation Army and other agencies responded after the tornado destroyed hundreds of homes in Mississippi. The tornado also skipped across state lines to damage at least two Alabama communities.

“This is our largest tornado response in six years,” Jones said by cell phone late Wednesday afternoon.

He's not doing the job alone. Jones is part of a 100-member Salvation Army team in the three states responding to the disaster. He's overseeing seven public information officers, working with the media, getting involved in fund-raisers for victims and spreading information about the Salvation Army's efforts on Facebook and Twitter.

Jones has also documented the Salvation Army's response to the crisis after winds of up to 170 mph stretched nearly 150 miles across Mississippi.

At noon Saturday, the tornado slammed into Eagle Lake in Warren County and devastated portions of Yazoo City fifteen minutes later. “By 12:30 p.m., we were loading the car to Yazoo and Eagle Lake,” Jones said. “While weather reports were ongoing, we were tweeting and Facebooking our activity to the media and followers.”

And by 12:45 p.m. as word spread about the EF4 tornado, the 38-year-old Mississippian really stepped things up. “We were live on two radio stations and coordinating media interviews with two TV stations. At 1:30 p.m., we arrived in Yazoo to assess damages and coordinate the response.”

An hour later, the storm did extensive damage to Attala and Holmes counties. Every 15 minutes, Jones and others with the Salvation Army were “tweeting and Facebooking our location and activity to draw awareness.”

A 1995 MC graduate with a bachelor's degree in mass communication, Jones has a history dealing with crisis situations. “I managed national messaging for public information during Hurricane Katrina.”

Although suffering from the tornado isn't as widespread compared to Katrina in 2005, the Salvation Army, other agencies and volunteers will continue to invest many hours in relief efforts. Gov. Haley Barbour has asked President Barack Obama to declare federal disaster areas in Choctaw, Yazoo, Attala, Holmes and Warren counties.

As a key part of his job for the Salvation Army, Jones says he's coordinated 12 telethon/fundraisers to support tornado victims. The Salvation Army has served more than 5,000 meals to storm victims and prayed with more than 2,000 people as of Wednesday.

On Thursday and Friday, Jones will keep monitoring weather reports to see what's coming next for the region. Forecasters say some portions of Mississippi face the threat of stormy weather again this weekend.