Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has awarded Community Recovery of Lowndes County a $250,000 grant to aid homeowners still repairing and rebuilding after a Feb. 23 tornado and subsequent flooding.
MEMA awarded Community Recovery with the first $50,000 installment of the Disaster Housing Recovery Grant Tuesday, according to a Community Recovery press release. Renee Sanders, director of United Way of Lowndes County, said the next four installments will come on an as-needed basis.
“The Disaster Housing Recovery Grant is one of the most responsive tools that the state has in its tool kit to assist disaster victims in repairing their homes,” MEMA Executive Director Greg Michel said in the press release. “The program requires the municipality or county to have an established nonprofit status entity to manage and issue grant funds. The grant pays for building materials only, but MEMA will also coordinate with numerous volunteer organizations to provide labor to assist with those repairs.”
Community Recovery of Lowndes County is under the umbrella of United Way and was formed after the February tornado specifically to recruit volunteers to aid those whose homes were damaged or destroyed during the storm. Organization chair Nicole Clinkscales told The Dispatch homeowners apply for aid with Community Recovery and, if found eligible, are assigned case managers to help determine what work needs to be done on their home.
So far, Clinkscales said, Community Recovery has mostly worked on smaller repairs. With this grant, she hopes to be able to tackle bigger projects for “clients” whose homes need to be demolished and rebuilt.
She said there are currently about nine such major projects case managers are working on, primarily on Shady, Moss and Railroad Streets and areas around Hunt Success Academy on 14th Street North, where the tornado did the most damage.
“A couple of them essentially are rebuilds … meaning they’ve had structural (damage), walls and things like that have been destroyed,” she said.
“We’re extremely excited and … we’re appreciative to MEMA for trusting these funds to us and we’re grateful to the clients that have been patient,” she added. “… This is going to give us a really good start.”
Both Clinkscales and Sanders stressed the organization is always looking for volunteers and donations. They added if anyone with a storm-damaged home hasn’t reached out to the organization, they can still do so at 662-352-8010 to set up an appointment with a case manager.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.