Graphic Courtesy of MEMA
As the state continues to recover from multiple rounds of severe weather, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has provided an update on relief efforts across the state.
According to MEMA, they are working either the response or recovery phase for three (3) active disasters in 60 counties.
Below is a fact sheet of those disasters, along with information regarding federal disaster declarations, state of emergencies and tornado totals so far this year.
Active Disasters: Mississippi has seen a total of 71 tornadoes so far this year.
MEMA is currently working the response and/or recovery phase of three (3) active disasters.
- Feb 19-24, 2019 – Tornadoes, Severe Storms and Flooding
- • State of Emergency declared on February 25, 2019
- • MEMA requested Federal Declaration on March 21, 2019. President Trump issued Federal Declaration on April 23, 2019 (DR-4429).
- April 13-14, 2019 – Tornadoes & Severe Storms
- • State of Emergency declared and signed on April 14th, and still ongoing
- • Damage assessments are still ongoing, with the anticipation of a federal declaration request being made to FEMA and the White House.
- • 19 Tornadoes declared by the National Weather Service.
- April 18, 2019 – Tornadoes and Severe Storms
- • State of Emergency declared and signed on April 18th, and still ongoing
- • Damage assessments are still ongoing, with the anticipation of a federal declaration request being made to FEMA & the White House.
- • 40 Tornadoes declared by the National Weather Service.
- April 13th and April 18th must be treated as separate event. They cannot be added together under the same federal declaration request.
Current Federal Disaster Declarations:
- DR-4415 – Federal Disaster Declared on Feb. 15th, 2019
– In response to December 27-28 Severe Storms and Flooding - –11 counties declared for Public Assistance only
- • Clarke, Covington, Forrest, Greene, Jasper, Jones, Marion, Newton, Noxubee, Perry and Wayne Counties.
• Public assistance in reimbursement grants to local governments and non-profit organizations for things like damage to infrastructure, debris removal and overtime to responders.
- DR-4429 – Federal Disaster Declared on April 23, 2019
– In response to February 22-24 Tornadoes, Severe Storms and Flooding. - – Initially, seven counties were declared as federal disaster areas… for Public Assistance
• Calhoun, Chickasaw, Clay, Grenada, Lowndes, Pontotoc and Tishomingo
• Public assistance in reimbursement grants to local governments and non-profit organizations for things like damage to infrastructure, debris removal and overtime to responders. - • Now that the Federal Declaration has been granted, MEMA can request additional counties be added to this declaration.
- • 13 additional counties have already been requested to be added to this declaration, now that those joint damage assessments have be completed.
- Those counties include: Alcorn, Carroll, Itawamba, Lafayette, Lee, Montgomery, Panola, Prentiss, Quitman, Tallahatchie Union, Webster and Yalobusha
• Those counties affected by the Mississippi-Yazoo River Basin backwater flooding, will be included in the consideration of this federal disaster declaration as well. However joint damage assessments must be completed before they can be requested for addition (Issaquena, Sharkey, Warren and Yazoo). - • Individual Assistance was denied for all counties included in this federal declaration. MEMA will appeal that decision within 30 days
- – Individual Assistance is assistance to individuals and households
The public is encouraged to report damage to homes or businesses to their county emergency management office. A directory of all the offices can be found at http://www.msema.org/county-ema/
MEMA has also created incident specific pages regarding all three tornado events on its website, www.msema.org. There you will find detailed information regarding each disaster.
