Mississippi Delta Collaborative Emergency Preparedness Project

FAIN: PG-51395-11

Sunflower County Library (Indianola, MS 38751-2415)
Jennifer Delaney Rose (Project Director: May 2010 to October 2012)

Training in disaster preparedness for staff in five cultural heritage institutions located in the Mississippi Delta region. The grant would also support the purchase of emergency response supplies that would be shared by the five repositories. Collections housed by these institutions include local newspapers, photographs, sound recordings, agricultural ledgers and other sources documenting diverse topics such as African American rural life, Chinese immigration, German prisoners of war during the 1940s, and regional music, most prominently reflected in the personal papers of blues musician B. B. King.

The sunflower County Library System is applying for funding on behalf of five Mississippi Delta historical and cultural heritage institutions. These institutions include the Sunflower County Library System, the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, Delta State University’s Charles W. Capps Archives and Museum, the Delta Blues Museum, and Cottonlandia Museum. The Mississippi Delta is geographically located in a 100-year floodplain that is susceptible to tornados and earthquakes occurring along the New Madrid Seismic Zone resulting in soil liquefaction. Grant funding is sought for training in emergency response procedures and for the purchase of salvage supplies for shared repositories for emergency response in the event of disasters.