A small rainfall Monday night and a continuous drizzle thismorning have not been enough for fire officials to lift a countyburn ban.

Many residents are trying to dispose of debris through burningand are causing out-of-control fires, said Clifford Galey, directorof the Lincoln County Civil Defense and county fire coordinator.Federal debris removal operations continue through Nov. 26.

“We did not get enough rain to lift the ban,” he said.

Mississippi Forestry Commission officials contacted him earlythis morning to say temperature and humidity would return toweekend levels very quickly, he said.

“It will be right back up there probably tomorrow. The threat offire damage is still very real. We strongly urge people not to doany burning at all,” he said.

Galey did not have exact numbers this morning, but said therewere “quite a few” grass and woods fires this weekend.

“Each of those fires was from someone burning trash or debrisand it got out of control,” he said.

City ordinances do not permit burning. Debris removal operationsin the city are nearly complete, Galey said.

“It’s basically finished in the city. They’re hitting a coupleof hot spots and picking up a few stumps before they’re done,” hesaid.

There will be no more passes through neighborhoods, he said.

Debris operations in the county are still continuing, Galeysaid. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has pushed thedeadline for 100 percent federally-funded debris cleanup operationsto Nov. 26.

In addition, President Bush has signed a bill allowing cleanupoperations after that date to be reimbursed at a 90/10federal-state split. Normally, federal reimbursement after thedeadline would have been just 75 percent, Galey said.

County residents are still being asked to place only vegetativedebris on the right-of-way.

“They’re about 90 percent complete with the first pass. Theywill do at least one more pass,” Galey said.

The second and any subsequent passes will also include othertypes of debris, such as construction materials, he said.

Galey urged residents to help with the cleanup by getting theirdebris to the side of the road as quickly as possible.

“The quicker they get it out there, the quicker we can find itand get it picked up,” he said.