Therese Apel

Clarion Ledger

With 33 tornadoes already on the books this year, the Legislature has cut the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency's budget again.

In 2006, after Hurricane Katrina hit, State Personnel Board audit showed that in order to handle a similar disaster, the agency would need $6.1 million. It was fully funded that year.

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In 2016, the agency was just given a budget of $3.2 million. That's with 16 open federal disasters still in various phases of recovery, including hurricanes Katrina and Isaac, tornadoes from Louisville, Smithville, the Pine Belt, and all around the state on Dec. 23, 2015, as well as the recent flooding from March 9.

MEMA Director Lee Smithson said since he took office on Feb. 1, the state has seen 33 confirmed tornadoes and flooding in 42 of 82 counties, 26 of which were issued federal disaster declarations. The flooding is considered the worst statewide damage since Hurricane Katrina. In addition, this hurricane season is forecast to be the worst since 2012.

"We're doing so with the 48 percent of the budget, and that becomes a life safety issue," Smithson said. "We’re not first responders and don’t claim to be, but we’re the ones who help when the counties get into recovery mode and if we can’t do that, it’s the counties that suffer."

The agency has already taken heat for its response rate during this year's flooding.

"When I tell the Legislature here’s what I absolutely, no joke need, and they still cut my funding, those are the ones who can’t complain about the lack of response of the agency if they’re hit by a storm," he said. "I had two legislators asking about why it took so long to do a damage assessment in the Delta. I want to tell them, 'You’re the one who needs to tell the constituents you cut my budget.'"

Under former Director Robert Latham, MEMA had submitted a budget request of $3.8 million for FY 2017, but had 13 positions open. The budget committee was going to close those positions, Smithson said, which would knock $262,000 out of the budget. Smithson said he appeared before the budget committee and asked it to allow him to fill those positions and to keep his budget intact, minus the money taken out for interagency fees. That put the budget at $3.6 million. He was told to hire the positions and that his budget would not be cut.

So he hired the positions, and the budget was cut anyway.

"When I walked out of the capitol on Saturday I was told the PINS (positions) were safe, and they were not cutting my money," Smithson said. "I’m not going to use the word lie, because it’s a nasty word, but they didn’t tell the truth."

That's money Smithson said he has to find elsewhere, because he gave his word to his new employees that they would have a job. Meanwhile, a smaller budget also means that the pool of 50/50 match money for federal grants is smaller, and there could be grants that have to be turned away for lack of state funds. That grant money goes to the counties for equipment and training, Smithson said.

"If state general fund money is cut to where we can’t meet the federal money, we have to send it back to DC. The second order effect of this budget reduction is huge," Smithson said. "For every dollar they take, I could potentially lose two."

Senate President Pro-Tem Terry Burton, R-Newton, said “Everyone is screaming the budget itself this year was a disaster."

"We never had a situation where if MEMA needed funds to match federal dollars, or had issues, we didn't do a deficit appropriation, so I think it's rather a matter of not putting it up front, but pay it in the end," he said.

Rep. Scott DeLano, R-Biloxi, said the cuts weren't specific to MEMA, but that many agencies felt the belt tightening this year. He said he has dealt with MEMA's budget for the last five years.

"I completely understand Director Smithson's struggles and concerns over readiness considering what we’ve had this year alone, and we haven’t started hurricane season yet. I’d like to help him out more than we could," DeLano said.

In addition, the Disaster Trust Fund has also been cut from $1.1 million a year as recommended by the State Personnel Board to under $600,000, Smithson said. Overtime for Highway Patrol, the Department of Environmental Quality, county resources, and other resources during a disaster comes from the Disaster Trust Fund.

"If we had another 2011 tornado outbreak, my disaster trust fund would be drawn down so fast we’d have to call special session and do deficit appropriations. If we had a very significant event, we’d have to do that," Smithson said. "And we'd have to bring in all the legislators, and we'd be paying that money to get them in there."

Lack of funds won't keep Mississippi from being pounded by natural disasters, Smithson said.

"As we go forward, climate change is a fact, whether it's manmade or not I’m not going to debate," he said. "But the National Weather Service in Jackson issues more tornado warnings than any other weather service in the country. We are averaging one federal disaster a year. We're getting more and more disaster declarations, but the budget is being cut. It’s become a life safety thing more than anything else."

The question is then: Is Mississippi prepared for the next catastrophic weather event?

"The thing is we’re as ready as we can be for the routine disasters, but we’re not ready for another Katrina, for something along the New Madrid fault, we’re not ready for another April 2011 tornado outbreak. That outbreak in 2011, Mississippi was the only state in recorded history to have two EF5 tornadoes in the same day.

"We’re as ready as we possibly can be for the historical type disasters, but we’re no where near ready for the catastrophic disaster. You can’t do that on $3.2 million. That’s not much more than what the budget was in 2005 when Katrina hit," Smithson said.

Fifty of his employees are federally funded right now because there's still work to be done in the Katrina recovery. Those positions end on Aug. 29. Smithson said he's applied with FEMA to keep them one more year, but if that doesn't work, he will have 10 employees to work the 16 open federal disasters on top of everything else. That could increase wait time on important projects, which could ultimately lose funding.

One of those projects is rebuilding the city of Biloxi's water and sewer system. When a phase is finished, MEMA and FEMA have to audit and inspect the work, and only after that will FEMA do the next round of funding. Not being able to fund those projects could be catastrophic, especially with $380 million in federal funds still out on Katrina recovery, Smithson said.

"It’s a phenomenal second-order effect. I’ve explained that to the members of the budget committee," Smithson said, adding that Wednesday is the fifth anniversary of the tornadoes that leveled parts of Smithville.

Delano said he takes it personally to help MEMA find a way to make ends meet in spite of the funding cuts.

"Instead of being the guy who says, 'They can live with these draconian cuts,' I’m going to say, 'It is what it is, it’s what we do in disaster times, we roll up our sleeves and everyone needs to participate to get through it,' and that’s what I’m going to do and help these guys in any way possible," DeLano said.

"We’ve had over $1 million cut since then. I wonder what the people of Smithville, who were already unhappy with MEMA's response, would think if they took another hit like that?" Smithson said.

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Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.