Emergency management teams from Lincoln and Lawrence counties met with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Wednesday to discuss the next steps the counties must take to receive federal money for the March storms.

MEMA representative Clayton French presented a slideshow with the requirements and considerations the counties must meet to receive the funding for each project.

“I want to highlight that this program is to restore what was lost, nothing more, and it is a reimbursement program, so you actually put your cost out there first,” French said. “The money will go to the state, and then it will be dispersed out to you once the project is complete.”

In April, the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors was told the county had about $200,000 in repairs from storms in February and March.

French said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the county 75 percent of the cost of a project, assuming the project meets all of its standards, and the state will cover 12.5 percent, leaving another 12.5 percent on the county.

“It is a partnership between FEMA, the state and you,” French said. “They are the writers that own the program. They invented the program. They’re the one’s that have the money. The state is going to help educate you and walk you through the process and work with you. It is up to you to identify projects to present to FEMA when they arrive.”

The storm damage that could qualify for funding must have occurred from March 9 to 29, French said. He walked the teams through the different type of projects, paperwork deadlines, special project considerations and time limits on the process.

Each emergency management team will have 60 days after its kick-off meeting — the formal meeting between the counties and FEMA — to turn in the paperwork for projects that were already completed or will be completed within the appropriate time frame after the storm, French said. The kick-off meeting date has yet to be set for Lincoln and Lawrence counties.

“You’ll be getting your kick-off meeting date with your FEMA pack soon,” French said. “Your packs will meet with you and start formulating the paperwork and projects.”

French encouraged both teams to present all damage at the kick-off meeting, whether the directors believed it would qualify or not. A project should not be discounted until each county’s FEMA representative reviews the paperwork, he said.

If a project can answer yes to these three questions — Is it eligible? Is it reasonable? Is it properly procured? — then it is reasonable to think the county will be reimbursed for the damage, French said.

Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Clifford Galey and Lawrence County Emergency Management Director Shana Turnage both said until the kick-off meeting, they will be scouting for more damage.

“We will be talking to all of the folk involved and gathering paperwork to submit,” Galey said.

“We plan to get with our county engineer, the guys on the road crews and the board of supervisors to talk about anything that we have yet to document,” Turnage said.

French did not give a timeline on when the FEMA reimbursement money would make it to the county level, but said the sooner the paperwork is complete the better.