Missouri is waiting for the federal government to decide whether to provide federal disaster aid for storms that smashed the state in mid-March and continued into early April.
More than one dozen twisters left a trail of wreckage in 27 Missouri counties, with the most damaged communities being Perryville, Poplar Bluff, Rolla, and West Plains. The tornadoes killed 13 people in their path.
Poplar Bluff City Manager Robert Knodell told Missourinet damage estimates exceed $50 million from an EF3 tornado striking his town on March 14th.
“Heavily damaging, a very significant number of homes, businesses, a school building heavily damaged, as well as a number of buildings on our community college campus, as well as businesses, and certainly crossed through the center of the community,” he said. “We have removed, as of this time, over 127,000
cubic yards of vegetative debris, which that is trees, stumps, limbs, and very significant utility repairs to our utility infrastructure.”
Knodell said the city is eagerly waiting for a federal decision.
“We have incurred a very significant amount of expense, you know, when it’s come to cleaning up and recovery from this storm. So those are expenditures that go well beyond our budgetary ability to be able to handle as well as to conduct the normal essential city services,” said Knodell.
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley has received a commitment from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to speed up the decision-making on Missouri’s requests for federal disaster aid.
“We pay a lot of overtime, whether that’s to our first responders, our street department, our utility personnel,” said Knodell. “We have to front some of those expenditures, which ultimately, makes the rest of our budget extremely tight. But certainly, we have to do what we have to do to make sure that our city continues to function.”
Several charities helped the town with cleanup in the earlier days after the twister rolled through. Some small volunteer groups have assisted here and there.
Knodell said Poplar Bluff still needs volunteers and donations through the South Central Missouri Community Action Agency.
Despite the tornado damage, Knodell said Poplar Bluff is still open for business and hopes an outdoor vacation to the city is in store for families this summer.
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