PHOTO GALLERY: How a crisis brought the community together

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - If the ultimate measure of a city is how people come together during a time of crisis, then Jackson, Mississippi, passes the litmus test.

A flood of water donations and volunteer drive-thru distributions in the midst of Jackson’s water crisis came from ordinary people, schools, churches, businesses, and other organizations.

This in addition to the mass statewide emergency response from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s coordinated relief efforts.

Without hesitation, hearts, wallets, and parking lots opened up allowing the state’s emergency response team and other organizations to either host water distributions or serve as donation sites.

Businesses stopped their daily routines to set up giveaways.

Volunteers came out of the woodwork to lend a hand.

Even organizations outside of Mississippi sent pallets, truckloads of water, and cash to help people in Jackson who at one point, had no running water.

After years of spontaneous boil water notices and abrupt school closures during severe weather, the tap water emergency came to a head on August 29, when Pearl River flooding overwhelmed an already fragile main treatment plant.

It caused many of Jackson’s faucets to deliver barely - if any - water.

Then, President Biden approved an emergency declaration for Jackson, enabling the state to tap into critical resources to respond to the crisis.

Aside from the politics of the water crisis playing out in public, what began to happen behind the scenes is a story best told in images.

This WLBT photo gallery shows how a crisis brought many people in Jackson together.

We’d love to see your stories too. Photos can be sent to sharie@wlbt.com.

Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

Copyright 2022 WLBT. All rights reserved.