Smith County approved to receive post-storm FEMA assistance (2024)

By KLTV Digital Media Staff

Published: Jun. 11, 2024 at 1:19 PM CDT|Updated: Jun. 11, 2024 at 7:23 PM CDT

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Smith County has been approved as one of the counties that FEMA will offer individual assistance to residents who suffered damages from recent storms.

Smith County Judge Neal Franklin on Tuesday, June 11, gave the latest update to Commissioners Court on the recent storms that have caused major damage throughout the county.

FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams have started going out in the county to help register those with damages to see if they qualify for federal assistance. They are knocking on doors in the areas that suffered the most damages first. All of the employees have FEMA badges on and they are there to help so don’t be alarmed.

The entire county has been hit hard by several storms over a two-week period, resulting in widespread and severe damages, injuries and/or loss of life or property.

On June 6, Judge Franklin issued an Amended Disaster Declaration, to encompass damages from all severe weather during those two weeks throughout all of Smith County. Declaring a disaster allows officials and emergency management personnel to access additional resources to support operational needs, as well as allowing for additional resources to be made available to citizens.

Judge Franklin thanked Oncor and all of the linemen who worked around the clock in Smith County to clear powerlines from downed trees and to restore power to tens of thousands of homes. He also thanked the Smith County Road and Bridge Department for their tireless efforts to clear trees from roads. And he thanked Smith County Emergency Management Coordinator Brandon Moore, who has worked day and night, leading the response from Smith County during the disaster.

“You have burned the candle at both ends,” Franklin told Moore, adding that his work doesn’t end when the weather ends. Moore will spend a lot more time reporting everything to the state and federal governments, as well as continuing to respond to the needs of the county.

Moore said there were too many people to thank so “if you’re in Smith County, thank you.”

Smith County is also working to establish a Disaster Recovery Center, where citizens will be able to come and apply for various federal programs and receive help if they qualify. FEMA will be operating the center.

As of Monday, 511 people have reported damages and asked for assistance by filling out the iSTAT form on the Texas Division of Emergency Management’s website, at https://damage.tdem.texas.gov/

If you have not reported your damages, please do so at your earliest convenience. These reports go directly to the Smith County Emergency Management Office and will be relayed to FEMA for possible assistance, as well as volunteer groups helping people clean up their properties.

Smith County officials also released updated statistics regarding recovery and relief efforts:

As of Tuesday, 48 people were without power.
Two PODs (Point of Distribution) centers were open for several days last week. They were closed on Friday.
At both PODS, the Texas A&M Forest Service and Texas Military Department distributed 37,152 bottles of water, 1,025 large bags of ice, 34,560 MREs and 1,500 tarps. There were 1,550 vehicles who went through the two drive-thru PODs.
A shelter at Bullard Intermediate School was open for several days last week, housing five families displaced by the storms. The shelter was closed on Friday.
There are approximately 50 volunteers from Team Rubicon and Texas Baptist Men assisting individuals with cleanup of their properties in Smith County.
Team Rubicon has been activated since Saturday afternoon and has helped nearly a dozen people as of Monday afternoon. Texas Baptist Men began setting up Monday and has begun sit surveys.
There have been 511 reported assessments. They include 27 structures destroyed, 143 with major damage, 120 with minor damage and 219 affected.

Several Smith County roads remain closed because of washouts and undermined culverts or bridges that will need to be replaced.

The Smith County Road and Bridge Department has been working to clear more than a hundred county roads that had trees down from the recent severe weather.

CR 452 is closed just west of CR 4125. Recent storms caused erosion behind the head wall of the wooden bridge. This bridge was already scheduled to be replaced this summer by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Road and Bridge crews have begun working to replace the culvert on CR 498 near Lindale.

Other county roads that remain closed because of wash outs or undermined culverts from the storms include CR 381, 498, 2110, and 3203. Do not drive around barricaded roads.

Residents living on county roads can place their tree debris on the rights of way on county roads. Please be patient as there were hundreds of trees down throughout the county, so it will take a while for Road and Bridge crews to pick up the debris. Please cut it into manageable pieces. Only tree debris will be picked up (no structural debris or metal, etc). and county employees cannot go onto private property to pick it up for you.