TYLERTOWN, Miss. (AP) 鈥 More than two months after a tornado destroyed his home, Brian Lowery still looks through the rubble, hoping to find a tie clip his mother gave him, made from the center stone of her wedding band.
鈥淚 still have hope,鈥 Lowery said.
Lowery considers himself lucky. He, his wife and 13-year-old son made it to safety before the tornado ripped apart their trailer home of 15 years. Despite his positive outlook, Lowery admits he鈥檚 frustrated; Mississippi鈥檚 request for federal aid is still pending before the , meaning badly needed assistance has not yet made it to his hard-hit community of Tylertown.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what you got to do or what you got to have to be able to be declared for a federal disaster area because this is pretty bad,鈥 Lowery said. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 help you because, whatever, we鈥檙e waiting on a letter; we鈥檙e waiting on somebody to sign his name. You know, all that. I鈥檓 just over it.鈥
Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves asked the Trump administration for a major disaster declaration on April 1 after on March 14 and 15, leaving seven people dead and hundreds of homes destroyed or damaged.
The declaration would allow the state to access a wide range of FEMA resources, including financial aid for individuals and for government agencies still removing debris and repairing infrastructure.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a declaration yet. People are still hurting,鈥 said Royce McKee, emergency management director for Walthall County, which includes Tylertown.
Mississippi鈥檚 request comes at a time of upheaval for FEMA. The agency's acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, was recently after he publicly disagreed with proposals to dismantle FEMA, an President Donald Trump has floated in calling the agency 鈥渧ery bureaucratic鈥 and 鈥渧ery slow.鈥
David Richardson, FEMA鈥檚 new acting administrator, himself to executing Trump鈥檚 vision for the agency. He also previewed potential policy changes, saying there could be 鈥渕ore cost-sharing with states鈥 and that FEMA would coordinate federal assistance
Walthall County was hit especially hard by the massive storm system that wreaked havoc across multiple states. The storm spawned two significant tornadoes in the county, where four people died.
McKee said the county has sunk an estimated $700,000 into cleaning up the damage but can鈥檛 afford to spend more and has halted operations until it receives federal help.
鈥淲e need federal help, and we need it desperately, and we need it now,鈥 said Bobby McGinnis, a Tylertown resident and firefighter. 鈥淚 know President Trump said that 鈥 America first, we鈥檙e going to help our American folks first. But we haven鈥檛 seen the federal folks down here.鈥
While Mississippi has been waiting, a similar major disaster declaration request out of Arkansas after the storms hit was denied, appealed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and finally approved on May 13.
鈥淲e are encouraged by FEMA鈥檚 decision regarding Arkansas鈥 application from the same storm system that hit Mississippi,鈥 Scott Simmons, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency鈥檚 director of external affairs, said in a statement. 鈥淲e anxiously await a positive decision.鈥
Mississippi lawmakers have been pressing federal officials on the issue. During a congressional hearing in early May, Republican Mississippi Rep. Michael Guest asked U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, to push forward the request.
鈥淚 would ask you if you could make sure that you could do everything to expedite that request,鈥 Guest said. 鈥滻t is impacting my local jurisdictions with debris cleanup. It is impacting people as they seek to recover.鈥
Republican Mississippi U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith also asked Noem about FEMA assistance and the administration鈥檚 to the agency.
鈥淧resident Trump has been very clear that he believes that the way that FEMA exists today should not continue,鈥 Noem responded. 鈥淗e wants to make sure that those reforms are happening where states are empowered to do the response and trained and equipped, and then the federal government would come in and support them and financially be there when they need them on their worst day.鈥
