There is an old joke that goes, “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it.”
The same observation could be made about the availability of storm shelters in Lowndes County, especially in the western part of the county, including Artesia, Crawford and the growing suburb of Elm Lake.
For more than two years, District 4 supervisor Jeff Smith has made a pitch for building storm shelters in west Lowndes County. There is only one storm shelter west of the Tombigbee River, located at the District 5 Road Department barn that can accommodate no more than 20 people as it is intended for use by county employees.
During Monday’s meeting, supervisors made the first concrete move toward addressing the lack of storm shelters, prioritizing three shelters for the west part of the county based on a list of shelter recommendations presented by Cindy Lawrence, the county’s E911 director.
District 1 supervisors Harry Sanders suggested priority be given to east county sites on the basis of greater population density, but ultimately went along with the rest of the board members on giving storm shelter sites in the western part of the county the highest priority.
Although Sanders has a legitimate point where population density is concerned, we see merit in building shelters west of the river first.
Residents there are more vulnerable in two respects. First, as noted, there are no public shelters at all in that part of the county. Beyond that, said Smith, 65 percent of the county’s 4,000 mobile homes are located west of the river. It’s accepted as fact that mobile homes are particularly vulnerable during storms.
Another element not to be ignored in the newfound urgency to build these shelters is funding. We urge not only the county, but Artesia and Crawford to apply for FEMA grants set aside for this purpose. Both Starkville and the city of Columbus have successfully used these grants to build shelters through 50/50 matching FEMA grants.
The county and these communities should waste no time in pursuing these grants as they make plans to address the shortage of storm shelters.
The talking phase should be over. Now, it’s time to do something.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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