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All Working Together. A Red Cross first-aid instructor, Campbell then ran one block west to the main street. "There must have been about 75 people out there," he says. "Some were just crying, others were walking around dazed, in a state of shock." Campbell began organizing search parties, telling them how to start looking for survivors. Then he met Mrs. Charles ("Daisy") Caffey of nearby Leland, Miss., a registered nurse who also happened to be passing through Inverness at the time of the storm.
Together they broke into the local community center and set up a first-aid station. The pair ministered to the sick and wounded for almost an hour until the first doctor arrived. "Black or white, rich or poor, it didn't make any difference; everybody was working together," says Mrs. Caffey. "People can't say America is torn up and we feel hostile against each other."
Many blacks, however, fail to share Mrs. Caffey's optimism. Through a caprice of fate, the black neighborhood bore the brunt of the storm and sustained the majority of injuries. Now black leaders fear that the rebuilding process will be dominated by whites, and that the new Inverness will mirror the racial inequities of the old. Nor are their fears unreasonable. At the first high-level meeting of local civic leaders, who will determine what property will be rebuilt first, there were no blacks present.
Inverness is determined to survive. A school has been converted into an emergency shelter. State and federal agencies have sent representatives to inform the townspeople how to obtain food stamps, low-interest loans, unemployment benefits and mobile homes. Chain saws were soon buzzing everywhere as the land was cleared of fallen trees and debris was bulldozed into piles and burned. Said one longtime resident, Mrs. Dot Williams: "We began rebuilding this town an hour after the twister hit. If anyone thinks we'll just give Inverness up, then they don't know Mississippians."