VICKSBURG, Ms. (KTVE/KARD) — The state of Mississippi is set to dole out storm shelter grants due to the recent severe weather.
Residents in 13 Mississippi counties such as Alcorn, Attala, Benton, Choctaw, Holmes, Lafayette, Monroe, Oktibbeha, Tippah, Tishomingo, Union, Warren and Yazoo affected by severe weather who build their own storm shelters may recover some of the cost through another round of safe room grants.
Well once in a while I would see where a tornado would be in the neighborhood. I would then look around to see what closet I was going to crawl into, but I never thought about building a storm shelter.
Raymond May- Vicksburg Resident
Mississippi launched safe room programs in 2001 after a series of tornados and severe weather hit the state similar to this year’s storms.
Residents in the thirteen counties may be reimbursed up to 75% of the cost of a small windowless room if built to FEMA criteria. I spoke with a resident off camera who shared the same frustration as Raymond. she says the city pump at the well takes precedent over storm shelters.
Let me tell you something it does not take an engineer to figure out that they need to buy a new pump for that well way back when. The flooding did not have anything to do with it.
Vicksburg Resident
The application process is open from Aug. 1 – Oct. 31. Mitigation funds from the Backwater Flooding/ Tornado Disaster (FEMA-MS-4429) will provide reimbursements to residents who build a safe room/storm shelter during this program.
