Shelter program affected by storms

Many Franklin County residents have been waiting for months to receive storm shelters through a program offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but county EMA Director Roy Gober said that wait would continue for a few more months to come.

According to Gober, the same issue FEMA has with providing immediate funding for tornado-ravaged schools like Phil Campbell High School is preventing them from providing the funding for storm shelters for the near 500 residents who requested them.

“When we had the initial meetings about the storm shelter program, we had 500 people on the waiting list to receive one,” Gober said. “We filled out all the paperwork but we were then told by the state that we had to limit our applications to 100 people because of funding. We sent in exactly 100 applications, but now we’ve been told that even those 100 applicants will have to wait because of the disaster declarations from things like Hurricane Irene and the Joplin, Mo., tornado.”

Ted Stuckey, a public information officer for FEMA, said FEMA has implemented immediate needs funding, which is something the agency does when their funds appropriated by Congress fall below $1 billion.

“The reason FEMA must do this is to insure the response to new and current disasters for emergency protective services and debris removal,” Stuckey said. “The public assistance permanent work projects are what will be postponed until Congress appropriates more funding to FEMA.”

Stuckey said examples of projects that would be affected by the funding freeze include construction on roads, bridges, schools infrastructures and the storm shelters.

“This in no way affects the individual assistance storm victims will receive,” Stuckey said. “It is only the permanent work projects. And it doesn’t mean the projects will never be finished. The funding has just been postponed for the time being.”

Gober said he feels sure Congress will appropriate enough funds so area residents will receive their storm shelters. He said it will just take longer than expected.

“It won’t just be the Alabama representatives who are pushing to get FEMA funding; it will be representatives from all the states affected by disasters this year,” Gober said. “There are many congressmen who will want to get the ball rolling so hopefully all these people put together will make a pretty big voice for disaster victims.”