PEARL, Miss. – The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency continues to respond to the winter weather event that impacted the state throughout the week of February 15, 2021. During this event, many Mississippians experienced dangerous cold and wintry precipitation that resulted in hazardous road conditions and widespread power outages.
“We are currently working with counties conducting damage assessments. Once that information is gathered, MEMA will have a better grasp of the destruction from this winter storm event. The state must reach more than a $4.5 million threshold of damages to request a major disaster declaration for public assistance. We are working as fast as we can to get this done for our state,” says MEMA Executive Director Stephen McCraney.
Last week, Neshoba County Emergency Management Agency reported one storm-related fatality to MEMA that occurred due to a motor vehicle accident. Unfortunately, over the weekend, MEMA received an additional report of a storm-related death in Oktibbeha County also due to a traffic accident. This brings the total of statewide storm-related deaths to two.
The following official damage reports have been submitted to MEMA by the following counties:
- Adams County – 1 home affected; 4 businesses affected
- Chickasaw County – 5 businesses affected
- Clay County – 2 businesses affected
- Copiah County – 2 businesses affected
- Grenada County – 10 homes affected; 1 business affected
- Marshall County – 1 home affected; 1 business affected
- Oktibbeha County – 2 homes affected
- Smith County – 1 business affected
- Warren County – 6 homes affected
- Washington County – 15,000 homes affected because of water supply issues
*These are preliminary numbers and could change throughout the assessment process
With many residents still without power and running water, MEMA will continue to work to fulfill supply requests from the counties.
Currently, MEMA has delivered and/or is processing the following requested resources:
- Bottles of water – 131,040
- Disaster Reservist Personnel – 14
- Tarps – 160
If there are immediate unmet needs, MEMA encourages you to contact your county emergency management agency. A list of those county contacts can be found here. Resources must be requested through the county EMA to be submitted to MEMA for resource coordination.
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