FEMA’s Lowry-Lee talks recent disaster relief aid

Severe weather has been in abundance around Joplin and its surrounding communities this season.

The April 29 storms were just another example of how fickle Mother Nature can be. Recently, President Trump approved disaster relief to help communities hit hard by the storms with assistance to get back on its feet. Several of those counties reside in Southwest Missouri—Barry, Greene, Lawrence, McDonald, Newton and Washington counties.

Now, community governments have roughly three weeks left to complete a FEMA public assistance briefing that gives the no-how to submit a project to FEMA within 30 days of the declaration—a crucial deadline to hit.

“We definitely want to encourage folks to submit within the 30 days,” FEMA coordinator Ryan Lowry-Lee said to NewsTalk KZRG. “That’s the key thing. Just to make sure that we don’t miss any timelines along the way. You have representatives at the state emergency management agency that can really help you along the way. I would recommend reaching out to your state emergency management agency, your contact there if you think that you can’t make that 30-day deadline. It’s really important that we want to make sure and hit those deadlines so that we’re not missing out on any potential funding.”

Those projects, which will be completed and then reimbursed, can be any number of things, and no less than 75 percent of the project will be funded by FEMA if approved. The public assistance funding is eligible for repair to government offices, roads, bridges or public buildings that suffered damage.

“As those projects unfold and are completed, FEMA provides the funding to reimburse the state, local municipalities for those projects no less than 75 percent,” Lowry-Lee said. “So, there’s usually a little bit of a cost share on the state and local side, but we also have staff that are available and connect with those folks local on the ground to help them make sure that the projects they’re writing for the funding are scoped out correctly. … So, throughout the whole process, they have a connection to FEMA.”

The Southern portion of the state was hit with significant weather during the storms, and while it may not get the attention of urban areas like St. Louis or Kansas City, Southwest Missouri communities have felt the hardship of severe weather over the last several weeks in particular.

“Southwest Missouri, they were hit hard as well,” Lowry-Lee said. “We want to make sure that those folks that are impacted and particularly the local government entities, are able to jump on this opportunity to get funding to help them recover so that they’re able to respond quickly the next time a disaster comes around.”