City In Recovery

by Adam Lynch
April 8, 2008

A spring storm went overboard last Friday, spawning about five tornados in the Jackson area and leaving a large portion of the city and some adjoining communities without power well into the following week. Hinds County Emergency Operation Director Larry Fisher called the storm the worst thing to hit the city since the Easter Flood of 1979—another meteorological disaster spurred by frumpy spring weather.

The storm brought winds topping 100 miles per hour and snapped many of the ancient trees that distinguish northeast Jackson. Tree roots, clutching enormous clods of earth spanning 15 feet or more, lay alongside upturned concrete and portions of sidewalk in some areas, and many houses were both obscured and obliterated by crashing limbs.

Watson Quality Ford reported more than 70 vehicles damaged from storm winds, which allegedly blew out vehicle windows. Incredibly, the city listed no death attributed to the storm, despite the failure of about 10 county warning sirens.

Fisher did not return calls regarding the sirens, but Council President Leslie McLemore said he recalled Fisher telling the council years ago that he would focus on a maintenance program for the aging sirens rather than replacement, due to high replacement costs.

“Apparently, the monitoring process that Fisher talked about was not that ongoing, based on what happened Friday,” McLemore told the Jackson Free Press. “Clearly there’s still an issue there.”

The sirens of emergency vehicles squealed endlessly throughout the weekend. More than 100 homeowners became victims of falling debris or later made victims of themselves in the following cleanup effort by tumbling off wet roofs and mishandling chain saws.

St. Dominic Health Services reported that many of its initial emergency room visits were not life-threatening.

By Saturday night, unfamiliar darkness enveloped much of northeast Jackson, even claiming whole sections of I-55. By Tuesday, Entergy reported 7,700 people still without power statewide, 7,300 of those in Jackson and surrounding communities. Entergy called in help from surrounding states to aid in the cleanup.

“We’ve got 1,200 vegetation crews, and some support personnel that we brought in from our sister utilities in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, as well as from other utilities in Alabama, Tennessee and Florida,” said Entergy spokeswoman Mara Hartmann, who added that Entergy hoped to restore power to all its customers by Wednesday.

Ward 6 Councilman Marshand Crisler said the mayor’s office never declared a state of emergency in the city. Gov. Haley Barbour eventually declared a state of emergency for a total of 12 counties, enveloping the Jackson metro, hoping the state can qualify for federal money for the cleanup effort.

“By issuing this state of emergency, we are providing a relief measure at the state level, which helps ensure affected residents have necessary supplies available to them, and that emergency responders will have the authority to provide these services to storm victims in an expedient manner,” Barbour said in a press release.

The Salvation Army offered services to the hard-hit North Jackson area, offering food and water in the parking lot of Brookshire’s grocery store on Ridgewood Road. Jackson Public Schools were closed Monday, due to power issues, but resumed on Tuesday.

The damage prognosis was not looking any better, by the reckoning of State Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, who told The Clarion-Ledger that he estimated insurance claims to surpass $50 million. That number, he added, could rise or drop in the following days.

Mississippi insurance rates have already fluctuated wildly since Hurricane Katrina struck the state, and policy-holders in the affected areas could see their rates rise in the aftermath of the April storm.

The city of Jackson’s solid waste division currently has no plans for a massive log-removal program similar to its Katrina cleanup endeavor, and is instead counting on homeowners or homeowners’ insurance companies to ditch the bramble.

The city has expanded the size of debris it will accept, however, increasing refuse length to no longer than 10 feet and no wider than two feet in diameter. It will also accept construction material, and debris no longer has to be bundled.

Fisher told city council members Monday that he estimated damages in Jackson of more than $7 million, with debris removal and overtime costs running an additional $3 million. Ward 1 Councilman Jeff Weill said the city will, hopefully, only have to pay a fraction of that.

“We’re reasonably confident that we’re going to get a FEMA declaration, meaning the federal government will pay 75 percent, and the state government will pay 12 and a half percent, so the city will only have to pay 12 and a half cents on every dollar of money spent on disaster relief,” Weill said. “It’s still definitely going to be a hit on the city’s already tight budget, but I’d rather be looking at a $300,000 debit than a $3 million debit.”

posted by L.W. on 04/11/08 at 07:52 AM