TYLERTOWN, Miss. (AP) — Over two months have passed since a tornado destroyed his home, yet Brian Lowery continues to search through the debris, hoping to locate a tie clip his mother gifted him, crafted from the center stone of her wedding ring.
“I still have hope,” Lowery said.
Lowery feels fortunate. He, along with his wife and 13-year-old son, reached safety before the tornado tore apart their trailer home of 15 years. While maintaining a positive attitude, Lowery acknowledges his frustration; Mississippi’s plea for federal assistance is still awaiting approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, meaning that much-needed aid has not yet reached his severely impacted community of Tylertown.
“I don’t understand what criteria or requirements are needed to be classified as a federal disaster area because this situation is quite dire,” Lowery remarked. “We can’t help you because we’re awaiting a letter or someone’s signature. I’m just tired of it.”
Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves asked the Trump administration for a major disaster declaration on April 1 after 18 tornadoes tore through the state on March 14 and 15, leaving seven people dead and hundreds of homes destroyed or damaged.
The declaration would allow the state to access a wide range of FEMA resources, including financial aid for individuals and for government agencies still removing debris and repairing infrastructure.
“We don’t have a declaration yet. People are still hurting,” said Royce McKee, emergency management director for Walthall County, which includes Tylertown.
Mississippi’s request comes at a time of upheaval for FEMA. The agency’s acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, was recently ousted after he publicly disagreed with proposals to dismantle FEMA, an idea President Donald Trump has floated in calling the agency “very bureaucratic” and “very slow.”
David Richardson, FEMA’s new acting administrator, committed himself to executing Trump’s vision for the agency. He also previewed potential policy changes, saying there could be “more cost-sharing with states” and that FEMA would coordinate federal assistance “when deemed necessary.”
Walthall County was hit especially hard by the massive storm system that wreaked havoc across multiple states. The storm spawned two significant tornadoes in the county, where four people died.
McKee said the county has sunk an estimated $700,000 into cleaning up the damage but can’t afford to spend more and has halted operations until it receives federal help.
“We need federal help, and we need it desperately, and we need it now,” said Bobby McGinnis, a Tylertown resident and firefighter. “I know President Trump said that — America first, we’re going to help our American folks first. But we haven’t seen the federal folks down here.”
While Mississippi has been waiting, a similar major disaster declaration request out of Arkansas after the storms hit was denied, appealed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and finally approved on May 13.
“We are encouraged by FEMA’s decision regarding Arkansas’ application from the same storm system that hit Mississippi,” Scott Simmons, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency’s director of external affairs, said in a statement. “We anxiously await a positive decision.”
Mississippi lawmakers have been pressing federal officials on the issue. During a congressional hearing in early May, Republican Mississippi Rep. Michael Guest asked U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, to push forward the request.
“I would ask you if you could make sure that you could do everything to expedite that request,” Guest said. ”It is impacting my local jurisdictions with debris cleanup. It is impacting people as they seek to recover.”
Republican Mississippi U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith also asked Noem about FEMA assistance and the administration’s new approach to the agency.
“President Trump has been very clear that he believes that the way that FEMA exists today should not continue,” Noem responded. “He wants to make sure that those reforms are happening where states are empowered to do the response and trained and equipped, and then the federal government would come in and support them and financially be there when they need them on their worst day.”
