After repeatedly being turned down for financial assistance, Newton County officials learned on Wednesday that the county would receive a $1.3 million grant to repair and replace houses damaged by the May 2008 tornado.
Presiding Commissioner Jerry Carter told the Globe’s editorial staff he considered it a victory, despite the fact that the county received no federal assistance for the public-sector cleanup.
“We haven’t given up on getting that help,” he said. “We believe it’s never too late, so we’re going to keep on trying.”
Newton County, in our view, is paying the price for a slipshod assessment job performed by federal emergency workers.
The county was unable to obtain a public-sector disaster declaration from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That declaration would have provided funds to remove and dispose of debris. Federal authorities denied the declaration on the grounds that the three Missouri counties hit on May 8 — Newton, Jasper and Barry — would have needed to sustain about $6.94 million in cleanup costs and damage in the public sector to qualify, based on their populations. The assessment fell just short of the needed amount. To this day, piles of debris can be seen in fields and along the roads. There is no money available to clean it up and haul it to the landfill in Lamar.
The good news this week is that the grant will help 45 families whose homes are not habitable. It will also help the 23 families whose homes still need to be replaced.
We have full faith that local officials will eventually clean up Newton County and repair roads and bridges damaged when the EF-4 tornado, in some areas, left a mile-wide path of destruction in its dust.
We don’t offer up that same type of confidence in FEMA. But, as Carter says, it’s never too late to right this wrong.
