The Mobile County Emergency Management has filed a preliminary damage estimate of $19 million with the state EMA for governmental expenses related to Hurricane Sally.
Mike Evans, deputy director of the Mobile County EMA, said the county organization submitted the figure to the state agency Friday evening. The estimate was based on a survey sent to the county government and municipal governments.
The total is by no means an over-arching account of the damage done by the storm. It doesn’t account for damage to private property such as homes. It’s an estimate of the amount that county and local governments expect to spend on debris removal, road and bridge repair, damage to publicly owned utilities and similar expenses.
Evans said the total is preliminary and the final amount will be higher. The important thing, he said, is that it’s well above the threshold needed to justify federal aid from FEMA.
“We’ve got to get that to the state so the wheels can begin to turn on the rest of it,” Evans said. “The intent is, we want to get this stuff going as fast as we can.”
Two teams from Alabama EMA will tour the county starting Monday. When they’ve verified the basis of the estimate, the state agency will forward the request to FEMA. Assuming it’s approved by FEMA, that means governments can be reimbursed for 75% of their expenses.
“That’s huge for the jurisdictions,” Evans said. “Most of the time none of them are going to have a rainy day fund big enough to cover tropical events and hurricanes.”
Evans said he’s confident the estimate will hold up, because local officials have plenty of experience at the task. “[Dauphin Island Mayor] Jeff Collier and his team on the island, they’ve done it enough that they’re pretty close on their estimates,” Evans said.
Federal aid for individuals is a separate process, Evans said. Generally speaking, private business and individuals should seek relief first from their insurers. Those needing help with things such as tarps for roofs should call 211 to report their needs.
Alabama Power reported that as of 10 a.m. Saturday, it was down to 23,400 outages and expected to have service restored to 95% of its Mobile-area customers by 10 p.m.
Baldwin County is served by several electrical utilities. The largest of these, Baldwin EMC, said that as of 9 a.m. Saturday it had 57,939 members experiencing power outages and that crews had restored power to nearly 20,000 meters since beginning storm recovery work.
On Friday, the Mobile County Commission announced plans for storm debris removal. The county will manage debris recovery on Dauphin Island and unincorporated areas of the county.
Pickup guidelines:
· Only Hurricane Sally-related vegetative and construction and demolition (C&D) debris will be collected. That excludes removal of normal household trash, appliances, electronics and household hazardous waste.
· Debris must be placed curbside or in right-of-way areas that do not block roadways or storm drains. Do not place material in drainage ditches.
· Vegetative debris should be piled separately from C&D debris material. Vegetative debris includes tree branches, limbs, and non-bagged leaves. C&D debris includes building materials, fencing and bagged materials.
· If you notice any downed tree issues within a public right-of-way in the unincorporated areas, please notify the Public Works Department at 251-574-4030.
The debris pick-up schedule will be released early next week.
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