Jackson Free Press

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson's office said a more thorough preliminary damage assessment might have prevented the Federal Emergency Management Agency's initial rejection of Gov. Haley Barbour's petition for federal damage assistance for storm damage in Hinds County.

"Absolutely, the governor jumped the gun," said Thompson's spokesman, Lanier Avant. "It's important to make sure that you calculate and factor in every potential incident of damage that has been done before you submit these Preliminary Damage Assessments because the White House takes for truth whatever you submit. They don't second-guess it. When you say you had X amount of damage done, when in fact you had twice as much damage done, then it's all your fault."

Debris left over from an April 4 flurry of strong winds and tornado activity sat browning along Jackson city streets last week. Enormous piles of leaves, branches and barrel-thick tree trunks lay alongside damaged, water-logged building material—leftovers from the fury of a storm front that ravaged portions of Jackson.

City officials estimated Jackson homeowners suffered million of dollars worth of damage, but FEMA did not believe the city had suffered enough damage to warrant federal money based on the governor's initial request.

FEMA claimed damage had not surpassed a $3.6 million threshold. The decision could deprive the city and county of money that could have helped the two governments repair damaged properties and get cleanup work underway.

Barbour said he would appeal the decision, and Sen. Roger Wicker and Thompson said they would do what they could to help the appeal along, but the delay forced the city of Jackson to stall hiring a contractor until last week, because it was unsure of where the money was coming from.

In the meantime, the city will request a $6 million loan to cover costs.

"We're going to get bids from all the local banks like Regions, Trustmark, BancorpSouth," said city Administration Director Rick Hill. "The bid requests will go out Monday, and the (banks) will have 10 days in which to respond. A couple of banks have already said they don't know any possible reason why they wouldn't be willing to loan us the money."

Hill said FEMA money would go directly to the repayment of the $6 million loan, if FEMA decided to be generous, but added that the city would have to cover the costs itself if the appeal didn't go though. Hill suggested the city re-pay the loan in annual increments.

Public Works Director Thelmon Boyd told the council earlier this month that initial assessments of the damage were under–reported because estimators calculated damage based strictly on damage in front yards.

"That assessment did not include the vast amount of damage–downed trees and such–in back yards," Boyd said, describing the hasty first assessment as a "windshield" appraisal made from the confines of a car cruising down devastated streets.

Avant said Barbour could have avoided an appeal had he allowed time for the city and county to gather more information for a more accurate assessment.

"The challenge in submitting a timely request is that it also has to be a complete request. Just to hurry up and do something that's incomplete doesn't meet the threshold, and that appears to be what happened here. Something was done or submitted in relatively short period of time, but it was incomplete," Avant said.

The federal Stafford Act states that the preliminary damage assessment of the disaster be done prior to the request for federal assistance, and should be done with complete cooperation between MEMA and of state, city and county officials.

Barbour spokesman Pete Smith said Barbour's office relied solely upon the recommendation and assessment of MEMA, and directed all comment to MEMA.

MEMA Deputy Administrator Lea Stokes said federal law does not require all three entities to have the same figures in their assessments.

"There are situations like a hurricane coming, you know somebody's going to get hit in one or two states. Usually those states will go ahead and request (disaster funds). ... There are situations before hand when you know a situation's coming and the PDA teams come in afterwards and then see how many additional counties may be added," Stokes said. "If San Francisco is hit, you may declare that area and then send PDA's out to other counties to see how bad they are. It just depends on the disaster.

Stokes added that MEMA will be working with the new information the city and county are preparing.

"They're supposed to get the rest of their information to us Monday," she said. "The city and country are getting additional information for us to appeal with. What that information is, I don't know. I imagine they're re-looking at some of their debris and their costs and using more of a fine-tooth comb to see what didn't come out the first time."