NEW ALBANY, Miss.—Tyler Grooms knew he was in trouble when he peered outside his home in New Albany, Mississippi, and saw lights at nearby houses start to flicker out. It was late on Saturday, Jan. 24, and the winter storm that had enveloped Mississippi since Friday was wreaking havoc on the state’s electrical grid.
“You could see it flashing like fireworks,” Grooms said of the power outages, recalling how the storm extinguished the lights around his neighborhood one by one. His own house lost power shortly after he went to bed, and the storm uprooted trees around his property and pelted his yard with ice and broken branches.
Grooms and his family spent the following nine days bouncing between motels in Union County as power outages persisted across much of the state. By the time electricity was restored to his house, he had burned through his savings and was driving Uber during the day to cover the family’s hotel stays.
“It was terrible,” Grooms said in a Feb. 4 interview outside his home. The 10-day period exacted a steep toll on his mental health and finances, he told the Mississippi Free Press, forcing him to give up what little flexibility he had to keep his family safe.
Over two months after Winter Storm Fern battered Mississippi with snow and freezing rain, residents and local governments are still feeling its effects. Families have emptied their bank accounts to pay for home repairs and extended hotel stays, and cities are stuck with multi-million dollar bills from ongoing debris cleanup and infrastructure fixes.
By late February, the Mississippi Insurance Department had reported over 12,000 claims totaling more than $107 million in losses, an amount that does not reflect the sizable out-of-pocket costs many residents incurred amid the storm. Some lawmakers have estimated that statewide damages from Fern could reach as high as $400 million.
Despite these significant impacts, however, Mississippians remain ineligible for direct disaster assistance awarded by the federal government. Efforts to pass recovery bills through the State Legislature, meanwhile, have been hampered by disagreements between lawmakers and the governor’s office.
These setbacks and delays in disaster relief have raised concerns among local officials, who worry their constituents could be left in the lurch without further government assistance.
“Everybody was touched by this,” stressed Corinth, Mississippi, Mayor Ralph Dance, whose city was devastated by Winter Storm Fern and its fallout. “I don’t think there’s a single family that didn’t have some kind of cost associated with this storm.”
Federal Uncertainty
Assistance following major natural disasters is typically the domain of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides funds directly to disaster victims through its Individual Assistance program. The program is meant to supplement state and local resources, offering temporary housing for vulnerable individuals and funding services and repairs not covered by insurance.
FEMA’s Public Assistance program, meanwhile, provides grants to states, tribes and local governments, helping them cover the cost of debris removal, public infrastructure rebuilds, and utility system fixes.
Less than two weeks after Winter Storm Fern, President Donald Trump approved a major disaster declaration request from Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, authorizing Public Assistance funding for dozens of counties statewide. But the Feb. 6 declaration did not include Individual Assistance for residents, forcing many Mississippians to rely on community aid and charitable groups to help with home repairs and unpaid bills.
“A lot of people were hit financially the hardest” by the storm, said Brittany Clark, a nurse practitioner whose rural health clinic has been supporting recovery efforts in Union County. Many residents who suffered storm damage lacked comprehensive insurance coverage, she explained, and there remains a significant need for expanded disaster assistance in her county.
In a March 24 interview, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials stressed that FEMA could still authorize Individual Assistance for Mississippi storm victims, noting that the timing of such approvals can vary from disaster to disaster.
“The federal government, as far as I know, is still reviewing our request for individual assistance,” MEMA Chief Communications Officer Scott Simmons told the Mississippi Free Press. “We have not received a decline or refusal yet, so it is under consideration at this time.”
Unlike with Public Assistance, there is no set amount of disaster damage that a state must sustain to qualify for Individual Assistance. However, Simmons said he’s hopeful that MEMA has documented enough out-of-pocket expenditures and weather-related losses to unlock federal funding for Mississippians.
“We believe that the damage that was suffered (during) this event … would warrant Individual Assistance,” he said. “We hope that the federal government will look favorably upon our request.”
In a March 24 email, FEMA’s Region 4 Office confirmed that Mississippi’s request for Individual Assistance is “still pending” but did not provide a timeline for when a decision would be made.
Should FEMA deny the request, Mississippi will be hard-pressed to provide assistance to winter storm victims unless lawmakers appropriate funding for that purpose, Simmons said. Some residents may have access to emergency funds made available by local cooperatives, he added, but that money only covers minor expenses like building supplies for home repairs.
“MEMA does not have a big bank,” Simmons concluded, noting that the agency’s annual budget is determined by the Legislature. “We don’t have money or revenues right now, either from the feds or the state, to be able to disperse to individuals.”
Legislative Roadblocks
While Mississippi awaits a decision on Individual Assistance, state lawmakers have advanced various bills to assist local governments with winter storm recovery. Central to this legislative effort is the proposed creation of a “disaster recovery emergency loan program” administered by MEMA.
Originally introduced in Senate Bill 2632, the emergency loans would fund infrastructure repairs and debris removal services, helping municipalities absorb these costs until they are reimbursed through FEMA’s Public Assistance program. Interest rates on loans would be capped at 1% annually after the federal funds arrive—a feature celebrated by many local officials.
A low interest rate “would make a big difference” for local governments and their constituents, Corinth Mayor Ralph Dance told the Mississippi Free Press. His city has had to borrow $3 million to clean up debris around town, and that loan has an annual interest rate of nearly 6%. “If we could do this through the state … that’s a big savings to our taxpayers on interest alone.”
The emergency loan program was put in jeopardy last week, however, when Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed S.B. 2632, claiming inaccurately that lawmakers altered the text after it had been sent to his desk for a signature. An earlier version of the bill included a 1% monthly interest rate, but the Senate changed it to a 1% annual interest rate before lawmakers sent it to the governor’s desk.
“The plainly unconstitutional (and possibly criminal) act of the person or persons that attempted to surreptitiously change a material (and negotiated) term of Senate Bill 2632 is unconscionable, Reeves wrote in his veto message on March 23.
Rather than trying to override the governor’s veto—a process that would require a two-thirds majority vote in both legislative chambers—lawmakers have incorporated the loan program into separate legislation in hopes of passing it through conventional processes. The new measure—House Bill 1646—establishes the same program as its predecessor, though local governments would have to pay a 3% annual interest rate on loans after receiving FEMA funds.
The higher interest rate may be an attempt to compromise with Reeves, who has lobbied for a 1% monthly charge on loans obtained through the program.
“I know there’s been a lot of frustration through all this, but I think we’ve moved forward,” House Appropriations C Committee Chairman Rep. Clay Deweese, R-Oxford, told other lawmakers and reporters at a March 26 briefing. “We’re hoping to get that money out as soon as possible.”
In addition to the emergency loan program, H.B. 1646 would establish a special fund within the State Treasury to help cover Mississippi’s portion of cost sharing for federal disaster assistance. The measure would allow a maximum of $5 million to be transferred into the fund each year.
Even if the bill becomes law, it’s unclear when the state-funded loans would become available to local governments. Deweese declined to give an exact date at last week’s briefing, noting that lawmakers are still working to fund the program and finalize the rules around its implementation.
“This bill is simply getting the program in place,” Deweese told reporters on March 26. MEMA has requested between $100 and $150 million to get the program off the ground, he explained, and he and other lawmakers are weighing various funding options.
An Ongoing Need
As Mississippi lawmakers race to pass winter storm recovery bills before the legislative session concludes on April 5, expenses have started piling up in hard-hit cities and counties.
In Lafayette County, one of the areas most affected by the extreme weather, the City of Oxford is preparing to borrow $25 million to help pay for debris clearing and other winter storm costs, Mayor Robyn Tannehill told reporters at the Capitol on March 26. While she hopes to use the state-backed program in H.B. 1646 to avoid taking out a private loan, she worries the funds may not be available in time.
“It’s been disappointing that it has taken this long to see a bill come to fruition,” she said, adding that she hopes the governor “has a change of heart” and doesn’t veto the emergency loan program a second time. “If we have to borrow money, the interest that we will have to pay is not reimbursable, so that will just be money that communities lose.”
Tannehill also advocated for increased disaster assistance for winter storm survivors statewide, highlighting the many Oxford residents whose finances were upended by the severe weather.
“We’ve got a lot of people in need that don’t typically find themselves in need because they had to spend their savings to have gas for generators and to make repairs on their roof,” she said. “I’m hopeful that (FEMA and state agencies) will find some ways to offer Individual Assistance.”
In neighboring Union County, Tyler Grooms isn’t banking on getting government assistance to cover his family’s hotel stays. He plans to continue driving Uber to ease his financial pain, and he says he’ll treat any funds he receives as an unexpected bonus.
“I’m not waiting on (anything),” Grooms concluded. “If it comes, it comes, and it’d be really well appreciated.”
Heather Harrison contributed to this report.
