Monday at the Carroll County Board of Supervisors meeting in Vaiden I presented the Federal Declaration information for the March 14-15 tornado for Carroll County that was approved last month for public assistance. Along with these recovery efforts for public assistance, it was approved at the board of supervisors meeting Monday for Carroll County to appeal to be declared for individual assistance. While Carroll County was recommended for both individual and public assistance by Governor Tate Reeves. We will be stating our case for Individual assistance for the homes that were damaged during the tornado. The documentation is there, through our damage assessments. Those assessments are what proved the case to the state when we got Gov. Reeves recommendation.
With these efforts is mitigation which is the reduction of something harmful or the reduction of its harmful effects. This involves measures taken to reduce the harmful effects of hazards that remain and the potential of harmful incidents that have already occurred.
One needs to look no further than over the last several years where we have had flooding, straight-line winds, and winter storms. While these hazards cannot be prevented from occurring, mitigation planning focuses on reducing the impact of such events when they do occur. Mitigation strategies include actions taken in the form of projects that will substantially reduce or eliminate repetitive losses due to the occurrence of the same hazard. Carroll County has done an excellent job in seeking mitigation for this area. In the last five years this area has had a lot of disaster declarations, just last Monday the Carroll County Board of Supervisors appointed Chancery Clerk Casey Carpenter and myself as the certifying official and applicant agent for this latest declaration.
I am proud of our efforts here, and we are coming with more mitigation efforts that will help prepare for the unexpected. Federal laws require state and local governments to coordinate mitigation planning and implementation efforts. Local governments, from the board of supervisors to the board of aldermen are serving in challenging times these days on the local level, flooding and tornadoes and severe weather at all-time highs. However, we as a team are meeting these challenges, one needs to look no further than that last board meeting Monday at the Vaiden courthouse.
Ken Strachan serves as the mayor of North Carrollton, a member of the Mississippi Municipal League board of directors and serves as Carroll County’s emergency management director
