MARIANNA, Fla. (WMBB) — Jackson County commissioners said they are fed up with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, for not following through with their words.
“They came in, they promised everything and delivered nothing,” Commission Chairman Jim Peacock said.
Peacock said after Hurricane Michael, they promised to provide money to pay for debris clean-up- which they did.
But, commissioners said they are upset now because after three years, Fema still hasn’t paid for the actual damage done to the roads.
“We have been haggling with them since the storm and now we have finally, we filed an appeal and they failed to address the issues so then we filed arbitration,” Peacock said.
Peacock said in the initial assessment Jackson County road repair would cost an estimated $70 mil.
Then FEMA cut it down to $40 mil., then $20 mil., and now around $800,000.
“We sustained a lot more damage than a lot of counties around here, who FEMA has taken care of,” Peacock said.
Commissioners also said they had very little time to assess damages.
“Hurricane Michael started on October 10 and FEMA stopped allowing us to count damage to roads January 31,” County Commissioner Eric Hill said. “But yet we still had to clear roads for another 7-8 months which were being damaged by the construction crews that had to remove the debris.”
County officials, like Hill, hope by taking these matters to court, they’ll get the money they believe the Jackson County community deserves.
