VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Virginia Beach-based nonprofit organization Operation Blessing is on the ground in Mississippi in response to a massive tornado that struck the area Friday.

Officials with Operation Blessing have deployed members from its U.S. Disaster Relief team along with an initial truckload of emergency relief supplies to the area. More supplies are enroute including a mobile kitchen, shower trailer, and construction equipment.
 
The team conducted damage assessments in the towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City over the weekend and toured the town of Amory Tuesday.

Senior Deployment Manager, David Wright, told 10 On Your Side, the path of destruction is hours long in terms of driving which makes response efforts challenging.

“In terms of the families in the homes, the ones that are closer to the main thoroughfares are the ones that get addressed first leaving some of those smaller areas completely forgotten in some instances.”

West Amory is one of those places he said where there is a great unmet need.

“There’s a great need here a lot of low income and impoverished areas around here that we are going to try and get into and provide as much relief as we possible can to them,” he said.

Additionally, the organization has deployed a trailer truckload of emergency relief supplies containing thousands of pounds of bottled water, emergency disaster relief kits and emergency meals, to a partner organization, Bethel Church.
 
To donate to the relief efforts, CLICK HERE.

Portsmouth-based organization , Mercy Chefs, is also in Mississippi serving meals to residents affected by the destructive tornado.

The disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization that serves chef-prepared meals in national emergencies and natural disasters says they will serve meals and water daily in Rolling Fork.