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| Wisconsin-based Henkels & McCoy contractors repair power lines at the corner of 5th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in McComb. (Aaron Rhoads | Enterprise-Journal) |
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Officials assessing damage to seek federal recovery help
By John Surratt | Enterprise-Journal
Posted: 09/05/08 - 11:58:53 am CDT
Local emergency management officials were making their final assessments while public works and utility crews continued clearing roads and restoring power to residents as the recovery from Hurricane Gustav winds down.
And everyone was keeping an eye to the southeast Atlantic and Hurricane Ike.
“Things continue to go well,” Pike County Civil Defense Director Richard Coghlan said this morning.
“We still have some roads blocked, but that is mainly due to water from the Bogue Chitto, and we may have one or two isolated spots where trees are still blocking a road,” he said.
Overall, Coghlan said, the county is back to normal.
“We’re looking a lot better,” Amite County Civil Defense Director Sam Walsh said.
Amite County was heavily hit by Gustav, which downed trees that blocked roads and fell on power lines, and spawned several tornados that caused damage in the county.
Walsh said county crews were working to remove trees and clear county roads.
Volunteers were working with local, state and federal officials, he said.
Some of the trees blocking roads remained entangled with power lines, he said, adding that road crews would have to wait until utility crews can remove the wires.
“I can’t say enough about my volunteers,” Walsh said. “They have done an outstanding job during this storm and did a number of things for us.”
As the recovery efforts wind down, local officials have begun working with state and federal emergency management agency officials to assess the damage from Gustav.
The assessments are necessary to determine if the counties are eligible for federal emergency assistance. Gov. Haley Barbour has asked President Bush to declare the state a disaster area, which would open the way for aid.
According to preliminary information from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, Amite County had 195 homes with minor damage and 257 mobile homes with minor damage from Gustav.
Two homes in the county were destroyed and three had major damage. Two mobile homes were destroyed, and seven had major damage.Six businesses had minor damage, while 18 public roads had minor damage and six had major damage.
Earnest Ellison said a falling tree destroyed the house he had rented on Claudia Street in Gloster for nearly eight years, and neither he nor his landlord had insurance.
Ellison, who said he lost everything to Gustav, said he’s counting on government and private organizations to help him recover, but so far he’s gotten nowhere.
“It’s frustrating to call these people, and they transfer you to another person and they tell you three different things,” he said. “I need help. I don’t need no run-around.”
Amite County schools remained closed today, although the school system’s faculty reported to work.
Local Entergy manager Jim Hedges said power has been restored the utility’s customers in Walthall County and all customers in Pike County were expected to be back on today.
Hedges said 700 customers remained without power in Amite County, while 900 Wilkinson County customers remained in the dark. He said power was expected to be restored to the customers in both counties today.
He said Entergy had about 1,000 employees working in the affected areas.
Once power is restored in Pike County, Hedges said, the crews working in the area would be sent to work in Wilkinson and Adams counties, and then sent to assist Entergy crews in Louisiana.
Magnolia Electric Power Association reported that 2,100 users remained without power this morning, with 948 in Amite County and 730 in Franklin County. An additional 400 users were without power in Pike County this morning.
“The sunshine on Thursday was a welcome relief from the rain, but the crews still had to deal with a saturated ground that sometimes made getting to the power poles difficult,” said Lucy Shell, member services director.
She said homes in the Progress, Tylertown, Dexter and Salem areas have service, as well as homes in Lincoln County and Jayess.
Shell said Magnolia Power crews would be concentrating their activity in Amite and Franklin counties and western Pike County today.
Coghlan and Walsh said while residents continue to clean their property, they need to keep an eye on Ike, which is expected to hit Florida next week and possibly enter the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday or Thursday.
According to the National Hurricane Center’s 5 a.m. report, Ike is a Category 3 storm with 125 mph winds and moving west at 15 mph.
“People need to watching Ike and begin making preparations,” Coghlan said. “Anytime we have a storm that can enter the Gulf, we need to be watching it and getting prepared.”
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Managing Editor Matt Williamson contributed to this report
1,000 employees working in the affected areas.
Once power is restored in Pike County, Hedges said, the crews working in the area would be sent to work in Wilkinson and Adams counties, and then sent to assist Entergy crews in Louisiana.
Magnolia Electric Power Association reported that 2,100 users remained without power this morning, with 948 in Amite County and 730 in Franklin County. An additional 400 users were without power in Pike County this morning.
“The sunshine on Thursday was a welcome relief from the rain, but the crews still had to deal with a saturated ground that sometimes made getting to the power poles difficult,” said Lucy Shell, member services director.
She said homes in the Progress, Tylertown, Dexter and Salem areas have service, as well as homes in Lincoln County and Jayess.
Shell said Magnolia Power crews would be concentrating their activity in Amite and Franklin counties and western Pike County today.
While they continue to clean their property, Coghlan and Walsh said residents need to keep an eye on Ike, which is expected to hit Florida next week and possibly enter the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday or Thursday.
According to the National Hurricane Center’s 5 a.m. report, Ike is a Category 3 storm with 125 mph winds and moving west at 15 mph.
“People need to watching Ike and begin making preparations,” Coghlan said. “Anytime we have a storm that can enter the Gulf, we need to be watching it and getting prepared.”
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Managing Editor Matt Williamson contributed to this report
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GMQ wrote on Sep 6, 2008 12:53 AM:
Insurance fraud costs the industry $80 billion dollars per year, FEMA fraud for Katrina only cost around $1 billion.
It's not "people looking for handouts", it's people looking to defraud either the insurance companies or the government (or both) that are the true problem.
Chastising a man for not having insurance is one thing, doing it after he lost his house sounds like a bad insurance sales pitch.
On top of that, the article mentions nothing about a handout, just the guy looking for help.
Wonderful neighborhood were making.
You want to do something about the guy hopping out of the late model Escalade getting food stamps? Report his rear end. If you see something that isn't right pick up the dang phone.
If you just whine and complain about possible frauds you have seen and do nothing, you are only doing EXACTLY what you are complaining about. You are expecting someone to do it for you at our expense. "