With public property damage exceeding $6 million, the Jonesboro area is likely to receive federal aid for last weekend's tornado, the county judge for Craighead County confirmed Friday.
An official total won't be known until next week, but the Civil Air Patrol took aerial footage of the devastation from the Jonesboro Municipal Airport to the Mall at Turtle Creek, and made a preliminary calculation, said County Judge Marvin Day, who was to present the latest damage estimate to the state before the close of business Friday.
If the official damage total exceeds $4 million, the county -- along with the cities of Jonesboro and Brookland -- would be eligible for expense reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Day said.
Once the official calculation is known, it will be submitted to FEMA, officials said.
"We really think we're going to wind up with federal disaster [relief]," Day said Friday, one day after telling reporters during a live-streamed media conference that the county would be "right on the line" of that $4 million threshold.
Day said the utility and airport damage, in particular, drove the damage figure higher than originally expected. The damaged public property includes downed power lines and right-of-way debris cleanup, as well as some of the airport wreckage.
"[The process] takes forever," Day added, referring to the timeline on when the county would receive reimbursement. "A year or so is a good guess."
If the applications are approved, the federal government will reimburse the cities for up to 75% of the cost of the damage, he said. If the official damage total doesn't meet the $4 million threshold, then Craighead County and the municipalities would have to apply for state-level aid, Day said.
The $6 million estimate does not include private property damage, which covers commercial and residential properties. In all, 135 homes were destroyed and another 108 received major damage in the tornado, according to numbers obtained by the county through the American Red Cross. Another 390 homes received minor damage, officials said.
Melody Daniel, a spokeswoman with the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management, confirmed that damage assessments were still "underway" as of late Thursday. Day said Friday that the assessments wouldn't be finished until after the weekend.
The government entities on Day's "radar" that would likely apply for FEMA aid would be Craighead County and the cities of Jonesboro and Brookland, he said. The Craighead Electric Cooperative and Jonesboro City Water and Light also would apply, Day said.
During the late afternoon of March 28, the EF3 tornado, with winds of up to 160 mph, ripped through the Jonesboro and Brookland areas, including the retail section of Jonesboro along East Highland Drive near Red Wolf Boulevard.
County and city officials said the coronavirus pandemic, and the accompanying social distancing and business closings meant that far fewer people were in the businesses at the time and that likely prevented serious injuries or death from the tornado. In all, there were 22 reported injuries, and none were life-threatening, officials said.
Conversely, the pandemic and all of the precautions surrounding it have made cleanup efforts far more challenging.
On Thursday, Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin said officials were "doing things that are not easy" with regards to the cleanup and assessment.
"We are learning as we go," he said.
Perrin, through a city spokesman, did not respond to requests for an interview.
Day also acknowledged the challenges that the pandemic has caused.
"We've been fighting a fight with covid-19, and now to throw that fight on top of the tornado, I have to say we've never seen anything like this," Day said. "It's a little frightening."
Residents and small-business owners also are seeking assistance where they can find it.
Crystal Blake owns Rustic Charm, a store on East Nettleton Avenue in Jonesboro that sells antique furniture and other vintage items. Its roof was severely damaged during the storm, and the prospect of the business reopening remains in doubt.
"There's a chance I'll be able to re-roof and move forward, but I don't know," the married mother of three said.
She is seeking any form of financial relief she can get. On Thursday, she said she applied for unemployment benefits.
Blake said she could not afford to pay both the property taxes and insurance on the business, so her policy lapsed in February, just weeks before the tornado. If any loans or grants are available to her, she will try to find them, she said.
"I'm trying to figure it out, but it's been overwhelming," she said.
The city of Jonesboro also has applied for a variety of other grants as it deals with the pandemic and the tornado cleanup. That requested assistance includes a Petco Foundation Tornado Relief grant for the city's animal shelter, Department of Justice covid-19 supplement funds for its Police Department, a Community Development Block Grant and more, city spokesman Bill Campbell said.
Various national organizations showed up to help in the tornado aftermath, and many of them have already packed up and left because the community showed that it could get the job done on its own through local outreach efforts, Day said.
"We live in a great place," he said. "It's a community that loves God and loves each other. ... It makes me really proud to call this area my hometown."
Metro on 04/05/2020