VIDEO: Disaster Resources in Kilmichael

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Storm damage recovery efforts continue across the state and in our viewing area.

Kilmichael was one of the towns hit hardest by Sunday’s storms.

Volunteers and relief agencies have been in town all week.

Residents tell us a lot of progress has been made, but there’s still a lot left to do and many are left without financial help.

The American Red Cross has been in town since Monday working with people impacted by the storms.

Less than a thousand residents call Kilmichael home, and Sunday’s storm leaves their town a part of a large scale disaster.

“People whose homes that were classified as having major damage, or destroyed according to our damage assessment protocols, those families, they did receive some financial assistance for their immediate disaster related needs,” says American Red Cross Client Case Worker Supervisor, Zola Pickett.

However, not everyone did. That’s because the American Red Cross runs off of donations, and that money becomes limited in these types of events.

Pickett says the relief agency has to weigh who needs help the most.

“For folks that are just without power, we’re not able to provide any financial assistance for a hotel room. We’re not able to, you know, provide any vouchers, or anything like that, so I would just encourage them to reach out to friends and family.”

Debris thrown all over the place, trees cutting homes in half, along with power outages, makes things tough for a small town with already limited resources.

“It’s not a question of whether we would want to, the question is we don’t have the resources. For instance, in this little town, our general fund has to support the fire department, the police department, the street department, and our tax base is primarily elderly and generates little to no property tax,” says Mayor Bobby Howell.

Kilmichael resident Crystal Ward, says she’s been without power all week, and wishes there was more assistance available for everyone affected by the storm’s path, minor to major, especially the elderly.

“I think they should come first because, you know, anything can happen. The roof can fall in, water damage, anything can happen. So yeah, I feel like they should come first.”

Howell says city leaders are being very cautious in spending money because the tornado damage may not meet federal guidelines for FEMA assistance.

“Because we didn’t have that many structural, you know, like homes destroyed and that stuff, the debris that’s down, which is tremendous, as y’all have seen, and they don’t promise you they’ll help you get that. We’re trying to build a case that we’ve got to have some help.”

Mayor Howell says it could take a couple of months to know what federal help they could get.

He also says the goal is to have power back up and running by midnight tonight, but that might exclude some isolated areas of the county.