County extends disaster state

Requests public’s patience

• Judge Allison Harbison (center) reviews the state of disaster declaration for Shelby County while Commissioner Roscoe McSwain (left) and Jimmy Lout (right) look on.

Shelby County Commissioners held an emergency called meeting Friday, June 7 to consider extending a state of disaster declaration for Shelby County that County Judge Allison Harbison signed Sunday, June 2.

The declaration describing the detrimental effects of torrential rainfall, flooding, high winds and loss of utility services across the county was effective for only seven days.

Citing commissioner’s observations during that time, and noting Commissioners Roscoe Mc-Swain and Stevie Smith’s confirmed findings of previously unknown damage, Harbison recommended extending the declaration.

Comm. Tom Bellmyer asked if the declaration in effect would be extendable. Harbison said “(The declaration) will stay in effect until we call it off, at least until y’all have looked at everything and figured out what all was done.”

After brief discussion, extending the declaration in place was unanimously approved.

Following the approval, McSwain made an appeal to the public for understanding and patience while the county goes through the process of evaluating the extent of the damage and formulating a plan of action to begin making the necessary repairs to the county’s road system.

“We’ve got to wait until the water quits running down the road before we do the repairs. A lot of the repairs … are very substantial and it’s going to take time,” he said. “This is really going to set us back months in our work. It’s going to halt our normal repairs and upgrades.”

McSwain added. “And we are also working with government officials to see about getting assistance and that’s taking time because a lot of the spots we’re trying to fix have to be looked at and documented with pictures.”

“We are trying to get some monies and resources from the Texas Department of Emergency Management,” said Harbison. “And that takes time because they want pictures, they want descriptions they want road numbers, they want estimations.”

“I really commend the commissioners for working so hard this week,” Harbison added. “First of all, to make sure everybody could get out and get to work, and second to work with TDEM and the emergency manager to get paperwork done so we can go out for the money.”

The efforts of other local organizations and volunteers were also applauded by commissioners.

“I’d also like to thank the fire departments. I had Huxley and Shelbyville all on one road,” Comm. Jimmy Lout said.

“We really do appreciate everybody’s help during the storms,” Harbison concurred. “But now we would really appreciate their patience because this might have happened overnight or over two days, but it can’t be fixed overnight, not over two days,” she continued. “So, we really ask for (your) patience and we want (everyone) to know that the commissioners are working very hard to get the roads intact and get them passable.”

Your Help is the di_erence.