Flood Damage Assessment Comes in at $420,000 for Jones County

JONES COUNTY, MISS. – Jones County’s infrastructure suffered nearly half-a-million dollars in damages after flash floods hit the county hard in Dec. 2018. The county says they will seek help from the state in the next few days. “Countywide, currently we are looking at $420,000 in damages to infrastructure,” Jones County’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), director, Paul Sheffield said. A number ($420,000) that reaches well past the county’s original threshold of $250,000, and it could be on the rise soon with three beats in the county still conducting damage assessments. “’Now we are just in a waiting game because the state would have to reach their threshold,” Sheffield said. The state’s threshold comes in at four-million dollars. If the state meets this threshold then Mississippi will qualify for federal assistance. “There are two separate sides of a disaster,” Sheffield explained. “There’s the individual assistance side, which is for the property owner and there’s the public assistance side which is for the government-owned infrastructure.” Sheffield says the county plans to remain focused on receiving federal assistance to get their public infrastructure fixed, and they hope to partner with non-profit organizations (such as R3SM) to help homeowners. “We are at the point where people need some help, so we are trying to exhaust all the assistance that we can give them,” Sheffield said. Despite damage to hundreds of homes, it remains unclear if the state will qualify for help from FEMA with a portion of Perry County still under water. “Until that number can be compiled, completed, and submitted into FEMA, we can’t answer that question,” Sheffield said. “Because we don’t know what the picture is of the entire state.” Jones County’s EOC officials say they are still collecting damage assessments. If you have any damage call 601-428-3187.