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Resolution brings light to Hannibal’s recovery and need for FEMA aid

HANNIBAL, Mo. – May 20th marks the first anniversary of the tornado that hit Hannibal. Rep. Lindall Shumake, R-Hannibal, has sponsored a resolution which calls on the

Rep. Lindell Shumake
Rep. Lindell Shumake

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to reimburse the city for expenses related to the tornado.

According to HCR50 and city officials, the storm cost the city over $900,000 for cleanup and repairs. The storm damaged power and gas lines as well as dispersing trees through the storm’s path. The tornado traveled over a mile through Marion County.

Hannibal Wal-Mart.b4ff8a24“The May storm was the worst storm anyone in this community can recall.  The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado,” said Hannibal City Manager Jeff LaGarce.

According to the Public Information Statement from the National Weather Service, the storm traveled 12 miles. The EF-1 tornado touched down around 7:24pm – a mile south of the Hannibal Regional Medical Center – with a peak wind of 105 miles per hour. The path was as wide as 50 yards – half of a football field. Many buildings were damaged, including homes, university buildings, and barns.

Rep. Lindell Shumake was home when the storm hit, as it was the first Monday out of session.

“It really just marched right through Hannibal,” said Shumake.

“On May 20, 2013, we received the early warnings about the coming of the storm. It was one of those situations where the entire family grabs the pets and runs to the basement,” Shumake continued. “The major part of the storm took about 10 or 15 minutes but the amount of damage sustained in that time was amazing. As I viewed the storm, it looked like the rain was running horizontally across the air.”

City officials acted quickly to do what they could to clear roadways and ensure the safety of locals. Hannibal City Councilman Michael Dobson is also fire chief for the Hannibal Rural Fire Protection District, which covers around 85 square miles around the city.

“I personally was in the Palmyra courthouse when the tornado warnings were issued. I travelled through the heavy rains and downed tree branches to return to Hannibal. Law enforcement from several jurisdictions began to assemble to coordinate plans to protect the community. John Hark, the city and county emergency management director, began to assemble key personnel that included representatives from the Red Cross and the city manager, to name a few. I worked with the city manager to formalize a disaster declaration. In the early hours of the morning, my fire department personnel completed assignments on the county roads that were less impacted over the city streets,” said Dobson.

DSC00107.b4ff8a24Hannibal Police Chief Lyndell Davis mobilized his department, dispatching teams of two and checking in every half hour.

“The police department lost radio communication right after it happened. There were power outages all over the town. As far as radio communication – they were so damaged it made covering the town quite difficult. What we did was use cell phone service. While some providers weren’t operating properly, some of them were and we relied on cell phone communication for the first several hours,” said Davis.

“My firefighters were out opening up county roads of tree limbs and debris. I stayed in communications with them to coordinate operations by radio. I travelled to check on my home and assisted with clearing several roads on the way. I personally had damage at home, but nothing leaking in my house. I travelled to the Marion 911 Emergency Operations Center as the emergency management coordination was being run from this facility since the communications tower had been lost at the city Emergency Operations Center. You can only imagine the calls that the dispatchers had to field after this event. I stayed in communications with my fire department to coordinate our efforts from there,” said Dobson.

“The heads from the city departments were present at these meetings with the priority to restore electric power to the city,” said Dobson.

Over 90% of the area was without electricity.

City officials remember the storm vividly as causing extreme darkness and extensive damage.

“I personally went home to get a few hours of sleep. It was very eerie traveling to my house, as there was not a light coming from any building and all the street lights were

Billboard
Billboard

dark. It was hard to tell where you were because we are used to having light to see the things on the way that you are familiar with. It was totally dark,” said Dobson.

“It was the first experience in my 22 years where we had complete darkness in the city. Headlights were almost useless. It was just so dark and there were just so much fallen trees and limbs. I’ve really never seen anything like it in our community.  We have a lot of trees and landscaping in our community and it really, really was quite an event for us because it immobilized our community for quite some period of time,” said Davis.

“The evening of the storm, the community was pitch black – all power was lost in Hannibal,” said LaGarce.

Both Councilman Dobson and Chief Davis touted the importance of those who were able to help clear debris and trim the trees. Contractors were hired to clear, but some also volunteered to help clear the tree damage. The City spent almost a quarter million dollars on cleanup, which has not been recovered.

“The Hannibal Board of Public Works sought and received assistance from multiple other communities’ electric service linemen. I had frequent communication with the city manager, as the cleanup operations began that were headed by the Hannibal Streets and Parks Departments. To speed things along, the city hired a private contractor to assist with debris removal and things moved at a faster pace until all the debris that was on or around the streets were cleared. Tom Dugger of the Red Cross was able to place phone calls and sought assistance from ‘chain saw teams,’” said Dobson.

“Faith-based disaster aid groups came into the area to cut and haul branches and prepare meals for affected persons and workers. Many residents lost food due to the power outage and business lost revenue. Some damage was sustained to a roof on a building at Hannibal LaGrange University,” said Shumake.

“One team, a Baptist Chain Saw Team cleared the trees that were on my home and would not take a dime from me. They were like angels that were sent from heaven as it would have taken me weeks to clear what they did in one day. They cleared my neighborhood and moved on to the next. The city had instructed the citizens to place their tree limbs at the curb and they would be picked up. It was a group effort of some tireless people that got us though this chapter in Hannibal’s history,” said Dobson.

dewey3.b4ff8a24“It took a week to fully restore power, and the utility department recruited some 40 linemen from some 14 different communities to aid this effort.  Financially, we paid for those efforts.  The days following the storm were difficult; community roadways resembled a jungle.  It took over 2 months (until early August) to clean-up,” said LaGarce. “Fortunately, to aid our efforts, we hired a company that specializes in post-disaster clean-up.  They brought massive equipment, and in-conjunction with our own efforts, prevented the clean-up process from lasting until January 2014 and/or beyond.”

The City of Hannibal has not received any financial assistance for their unexpected costs related to the storms – from insurance or government.

The resolution proposed by Hannibal’s Rep. Shumake states that the storm was not included in the time frame to receive federal assistance, as President Barack Obama only declared May 23, 29 and June 20 federal disaster periods.

“It’s not clear to me why [May 20] date was not included. That storm was the worst. Marion County was included with the Missouri 27 counties that were listed in the FEMA emergency declaration. I would think that they would have that option to include the date of the tornado as well,” said Shumake.

Chief Davis has seen the financial impact within the city.

“From a fiscal stand point, it was a tremendous strain on the city financially – in fact, we still suffer from that, but the city had to do right for its citizens to get the city back on its feet, but unfortunately the city has to pay those bills and they have. It has taken a pretty significant toll on us this year, the outside contractor coming in hauling off all the debris, the overtime for the police, the parks; everyone had to pull together. It was very fiscally straining for the city and it was something the city needed to do to get back on its feet. We’re still dealing with the ramifications of that and there’s no free lunch here. The bills have to be paid – all the extra costs – there’s no way a city our size could ever have enough money held back just sitting around waiting for that. Any sort of assistance the city could have now or in the future would be well received,” Davis said. “This whole year, all of the city departments have been basically on a spending freeze. We were only allowed to spend what we absolutely had to and there’s even talk in further reductions in staffing.”

“Unfortunately, this particular disaster was not included in the federal disaster declaration, so all costs associated with restoration and clean-up were ineligible for FEMA reimbursement – ironically, the worst storm here in recorded history.  The above-referenced company cost $238,000 alone – non-reimburseable,” said LaGarce. “A quarter of a million dollar unbudgeted item is very difficult to swallow financially, but was necessary.  None of the utility costs were reimbursable either.  The utility department spent hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing hundreds of telephone poles – many had snapped at their base, in addition to all the new services, cost of outside linemen, dewey2.b4ff8a24etc.”

Shumake wrote a letter to Governor Nixon asking him to intercede and assist with FEMA funds for Hannibal, which he hand delivered during the 2013 interim, but no response was received. The Governor’s office has not provided comment at this time.

Davis agrees that help is much needed, saying, “These storms have had a significant impact on us and being a smaller city, we don’t have the fiscal resources a larger city or metropolitan area might have, so any sort of assistance we could have – be it state or federal – would be greatly appreciated and would really go a long ways in getting us back on our feet.”

“If all of the damage sustained to both public and private property was assessed, the price tag may have run into the millions. The Board of Public Works had to spend about $900,000 and the City of Hannibal spent around $238,000 to clear away branches,” said Shumake. “It is not completely clear to me why this disaster was not included in the declaration and that is the purpose of HCR 50. I want to draw attention to this and am in hope that FEMA will reconsider backdating the declaration.”

Courtesy of Councilman Dobson
Courtesy of Councilman Dobson

“We are very grateful to Representative Shumake for sponsoring this bill [sic].  If it passes, it would be a godsend to Hannibal,” said the city manager.
“There’s only so much you can do [to survive a natural disaster]. We did have plans in place, but we really hadn’t experienced anything like that – at least in the 22 years I’ve been with the department to that degree. Some of the things we had in place worked well, but I would encourage every municipality, every county, every state to always look over your plans, try and test them before something happens, test them, and try to evaluate what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are like we did. We tried to find out what both worked and what didn’t work and we tried to remedy what didn’t work,” said the police chief.

Shumake said the resolution was a good place to start.

The resolution has been heard in the House Budget Committee and Shumake is prepared to present it on the House floor.

Photos courtesy of Delores Woodhurst unless otherwise stated.

Gary Gurecki contributed to this article.