FEMA assesses damage to area

By Mary Hood (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Friday, September 5, 2008

NATCHEZ — State and federal emergency management officials toured Adams County Thursday to assess the storm damage.

One FEMA official and one MEMA representative began the day by touring within the city limits.

They met back at the Adams County Emergency Operations Center to regroup before touring the county.

Once the tours are completed, they will begin to write a report.

“It’ll be countywide,” Adams County EMA Director Stan Owens said of the report. “They’re doing a county assessment but they just broke it in half to make it easier.”

Owens said the tour showed them the extent of Gustav’s wrath.

“They did say they saw a lot of damage, but that’s obvious,” he said.

Jeff Rent, director of external affairs for MEMA, said the process begins with the assessment and then moves to officials compiling reports of the damage.

These are then sent off by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the president where approval is either given or denied, then the help will trickle down through the agencies, finally reaching the counties.

Rent said this is only a request for public assistance, not for personal or individual assistance.

He said it may take a few days before everything comes together.

“This is probably the first day they’re actually going out and handling the assessment,” he said. “It’s going to be a couple of days before they start putting numbers on it.”

Fifteen other counties are being assessed for federal aid — Amite, Copiah, Forrest, Franklin, George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Jones, Lincoln, Marion, Pearl River, Stone, Warren and Wilkinson.

Rent said it could take until early next week before all the information is gathered and organized.

“With that many counties, it could be easily that long,” he said. “It takes a while to do damage assessment.”

He said there’s no telling when the requests could get the president’s stamp of approval.

“There’s never a timeline on that for them to respond,” he said.

He said once qualified for federal assistance, counties can receive reimbursement for preparing for the storm, personnel costs and helping pay to reconstruct any damage to infrastructure, public buildings, traffic lights and to assist with clean up of debris.

Owens said he believes the county will qualify for federal aid.

“It’s really hard to say at this point, but I do believe with the combined damage we have in the city and the county, we will probably see a declaration,” he said.