Monroe County applicants have been waiting a year to receive safe rooms

MONROE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – One Monroe County leader is expressing frustration over the delay in getting storm shelters despite applying for grants. Hosea Bogan, the 5th district supervisor and board of supervisors president, shared his concerns.

“It has been very difficult for us to get these shelters in here. As far as I am aware, no shelters from these grants have been put in as of today as I know of. And it’s about 500 plus individuals in Monroe County that have applied for these grants for these storm shelters. We have peoples who are in dire need of these shelters,” said Bogan.

Of the hundreds of Monroe County applicants, no one has been notified of approval.

The shelter must be paid for in full before 75% of the cost can be reimbursed.

Despite the challenges, Allen Lee the General Manager at Lee’s Storm Shelters, said he’s seen an increased demand for shelters since the April storms ravaged the area.

“It’s definitely been an uptick in sales with the weather we’ve had locally. There’s a lot of people hoping they can get some safe shelters through some funding and so forth but definitely been an uptick,” said Lee.

According to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency’s website, the MEMA staff is processing nearly 2,000 applications and is awaiting FEMA’s decision on approving those safe room applications.

“We’re not gonna stop until we get these storm shelters. They came to us in the year 2022. We did exactly what they asked us to do to fill these applications out and get them back to them, and we’ve done that so we expect for them to hold up their end of the deal,” said Lee.

It’s important to note that the Individual Safe Room Program is currently closed and no new applications are being accepted.

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