00:00A concrete safe room offering tornado survivors in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, a place to shelter from violent winds and flying
00:07debris.
00:08April and Brad Nicholson are receiving this one.
00:12Back in March of 2023, April and her daughter were trapped under a collapsed roof at a restaurant when an
00:19EF4 tornado ripped through the small Mississippi Delta Town.
00:22The tornado left much of the community unrecognizable.
00:26Storm chaser Eric Fox says he helped rescue the mother and daughter and still remembers the destruction he encountered.
00:33What I was surprised with was just how devastating it was.
00:36As soon as I got onto the highway, I turned right and I couldn't go anywhere and there was an
00:42entire building demolished that had been thrown into the middle of the highway.
00:46You couldn't get into town.
00:49That experience helped inspire a new mission for Fox and his team at the National Storm Chasers Summit.
00:54Working with partners, the summit donated two Oz safe rooms, one to the Nicholson family and another to a local
01:02church in the community.
01:03Look, if we can put in one shelter or safe room and save lives, that's what our goal was.
01:10Fox says the above-ground concrete rooms cost roughly $10,500 each, a price that can put the protection out
01:17of reach for some families.
01:19Help people who can't afford putting in these storm shelters.
01:22The effort started in Rolling Fork, but Fox wants it to reach beyond the Mississippi Delta.
01:27We had several tornadoes hit Illinois this year.
01:30We're looking there.
01:30We're also looking at Enid, Oklahoma.
01:32The team is now raising money with a goal to install 20 to 30 safe rooms each year.
01:37Our view is one life saved is better than no life saved.
01:40For AccuWeather, I'm Heather Fordham.
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