President Donald Trump has declared Lowndes and six other counties in Mississippi federal disaster areas in response to a Feb. 23 EF-3 tornado and subsequent flooding, according to a Mississippi Emergency Management Agency press release issued Tuesday.
The declaration means the county, including the city of Columbus, will be eligible for federal reimbursement for storm debris cleanup and monitoring, as well as any damage to city infrastructure.
Funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the city up to 75 percent of the $9.3 million in damages to Sim Scott Park, the Riverwalk and amphitheater, and city streets. Columbus is also eligible to receive funds to pay Looks Great Services and Debris Tech, the two companies hired by the city to begin debris monitoring and cleanup.
Five Columbus Municipal School District buildings sustained damage. The worst was at the former Hunt High School facility — which had housed the alternative school and some after school programs — where most of the roof was blown off. CMSD board president Jason Spears said FEMA will reimburse the school district for repair costs not covered by insurance.
Availability of assistance to individuals and households in Lowndes County affected by the storm is still under review, according to the MEMA press release. The storm ripped mainly through Columbus’ north side, affecting 275 homes and 38 businesses.
In a statement emailed to The Dispatch, Mayor Robert Smith praised the federal and state government officials who “played a big part” in the county’s receiving the federal declaration. He also praised J5 GBL, the city’s project management firm, for compiling information necessary for the declaration.
“… We are also thankful for FEMA, MEMA staff members, and Lowndes County Emergency Management for their work in making this happen,” he wrote. “… The highly skilled and expeditious technical work of J5 with over 2,000 photos and hundreds of pages of required federal documents for this public assistance application is also why we have this FEMA disaster approval. Our cleanup and rebuilding in Columbus continues and we are working daily to bring life back to normal for storm victims. We are still hopeful for approval of individual assistance to further improve the lives of our residents.”
Other counties declared federal disaster areas in Mississippi include Calhoun, Chickasaw, Clay, Grenada, Pontotoc and Tishomingo counties.
Removing debris from private property
Cleanup from the storm continues as Columbus city councilmen adopted a resolution to allow city workers to go onto private property to remove storm debris at the owner’s request during a special-call meeting Tuesday morning.
The resolution is based on a state emergency management law that allows a city where a disaster has been declared federally or by the governor may use municipal equipment to remove debris to “prevent the spread of disease or any other health hazard” or to “prevent future damage” to property.
Property owners would have to contact the public works department with a request for assistance and would have to sign a consent form before city employees can enter their property, said City Attorney Jeff Turnage. Additionally, the resolution only covers property in the areas damaged by the storm.
Columbus will have the legal right to do this until the governor’s declaration or the federal declaration of emergency expires. The governor’s declaration has to be renewed every 30 days and the federal declaration has to be renewed every year.
City project manager Jabari Edwards, owner of J5, said Debris Tech and Looks Great Services, the companies Columbus has hired to remove and track the amount of debris removed from the city for federal reimbursement, would also track debris removal from private property by the public works department.
“We’ll track the tonnage and submit that along with everything else to FEMA,” he said. “So we would get reimbursed.”
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