Bamberg County, S.C., Seeks FEMA Help After Tornado

Read Time:3 Minute, 18 Second

(TNS) – Bamberg County is seeking individual assistance funding through FEMA following the tornado that ripped through downtown.

A letter from Gov. Henry McMaster has been sent to U.S. President Joe Biden requesting individual assistance, including Community Disaster Loan programs, following the Jan. 9 tornado, according to County Administrator Joey Preston.

If the request is approved, individuals in the county could apply for grants up to $40,000 to repair their homes, Preston said.

“And if they’ve had any loss of income, they can also apply for up to around $40,000 — if they had to pay for childcare, or whatever problems the storm may have caused that caused them to have to spend money that they didn’t have,” Preston said

“Now we did not meet the individual assistance threshold, but we still got the letter sent in. That took a lot of work. We convinced the state to ask for it. Now we don’t know when it’s going to approved. There’s no timeline…but hopefully it will not be too long,” Preston said.

“There’s a bunch of folks lobbying for us and hopefully going to be able to help us out,” he said. Small business loan assistance would also come along with requested individual assistance funding.

McMaster noted in his Feb. 2 letter to the president that, “the situation and survivor recovery needs in Bamberg County are of such severity and magnitude that…federal assistance is necessary to supplement the ongoing efforts and available resources of the state, local governments, disaster relief organizations and compensation by insurance for disaster-related losses.”

The county also did not meet the state’s public assistance threshold of $9.4 million.

Preston noted that the estimated public costs as a result of the tornado totaled $3.9 million.

“When you apply insurance to it, it knocks it down to $1.7 million. We couldn’t ask for public assistance from the feds because they had that threshold….Then the state’s supposed to help you,” the administrator said, but that was not a guarantee either.

“The state doesn’t have a fund to help counties. There is an Office of Resiliency and it’s been funded, but there is no money set aside for this type of thing. I do know the Emergency Preparedness Division for the state is going to be asking the General Assembly probably for the next year to fund that $9.4 million so that if this does happen in the future, there will be money there that can help go towards counties,” Preston said.

He continued, “We’re trying to use Bamberg as an example of why they need to do that. (The state Emergency Management Division ) asked for it last year and they didn’t see the light of day with it. It was too late to ask for it this year…but they’re going to ask for it again next year. So keep that in mind.”

In the meantime, Preston said the county will be tapping into other programs, including those from the USDA.

“USDA has asked us to provide them with a list of all the property owners, their names and their contact information. We’re working on that. I think they may have a meeting here and invite the community in,” he said.

Preston made the comments at Bamberg County Council’s meeting earlier this month.

Council Chairman Evert Comer Jr . said the situation will be assessed, “to get the quickest attention that we can to it.”

Contact the writer: dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5534. Follow “Good News with Gleaton” on Twitter at @DionneTandD

___