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The Birmingham News | FEMA in Alabama for 'long haul'

May 30, 2011

FEMA in Alabama for 'long haul'

By Kent Faulk | The Birmingham News | May 30, 2011

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited Hackleburg Sunday to survey damage and meet with local elected officials about ongoing efforts to clean up from the April 27 tornado that killed 18 residents and wiped out a big chunk of the small northwest Alabama town's structures.

Napolitano said the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of Homeland Security, will be in Alabama for the "long haul" to help the town and state recover from the dozens of tornadoes that struck that day.

"This will be a marathon, not a sprint," she said at a press conference at the end of her visit.

Napolitano, who has visited other areas of the state since the tornadoes, encouraged Hackleburg residents to "hang in there." She said that through perseverance and working together the town can rebound.

She also encouraged Alabama residents hit by the tornado to sign up for disaster relief.

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, accompanied Napolitano on her visit of Marion County -- his home county.

The tornado killed a total of 24 people in Marion County, including the deaths in Hackleburg. In all, 238 were killed in Alabama tornadoes on April 27.

Aderholt, chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, sponsored a bill last week in that committee to add $1 billion to FEMA's dwindling disaster response funds to help the agency with the Alabama tornadoes, Mississippi River flooding and the recent tornado in Joplin, Mo.

The bill was approved by the committee, and he expects the bill to move forward for consideration next week in the U.S. House of Representatives, Aderholt said.

"That (money) will assure that through this fiscal year FEMA will have the disaster relief money that they need until we can get a better assessment down the road of how much this entire disaster will be (cost), not only for here, but for Missouri, for out along the Mississippi, and elsewhere in the country," he said.

Napolitano began her visit with a helicopter tour over the Marion County city. Another six people were killed throughout the rest of Marion County in the storm.

After landing, Napolitano stopped by the city's school campus which was severely damaged by the EF-5 twister. While there, she chatted briefly with 2011 senior class valedictorian Jessica Montgomery and salutatorian Wynn Knowles.

Montgomery and Knowles on Friday night had given their graduation speeches, both of which were centered on the tornado.

"If we need to get something done, we have to come together, and I think that's what we did, and we did it well," Montgomery said of the theme of her speech.

Knowles said his speech was centered on "don't back down in fear and just keep going forward."

Both teens' homes were destroyed in the tornado.

Montgomery said her family was in a basement down the road from their house when the tornado leveled their home. Knowles said he was with his family huddled in his parents' closet when the tornado ripped the roof off their home.

Napolitano and Aderholt visited a volunteer staging center before meeting at Hackleburg City Hall with about 25 local and state officials from Marion and Franklin counties.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley on Saturday announced that FEMA has granted his request to add Public Assistance, Category A debris removal to Operation Clean Sweep. All debris removal operations, whether performed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a private contractor or force account labor, will be at a 90 percent federal cost share if performed within, or immediately adjacent to, areas determined to have catastrophic or extensive damage by FEMA.

The ongoing pilot program is being extended for an additional 30 days. The original deadline was June 12, and now the new deadline is July 12.

Alabama Emergency Management Agency Director Art Faulkner said at the press conference with Napolitano in Hackleburg that the state might not need to request another extension if the costs for debris removal per capita reach a certain level.

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