From hurricanes to winter storms to an ongoing pandemic, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has had a busy 2021.
“Each year can deal us a different blow. We never know what Mother Nature will throw our way. MEMA is proud of the response work that we do for Mississippians,” MEMA Executive Director Steven McCraney said.
Here’s a look at MEMA’s work during the 2021 calendar year:
Response:
- Responded to 24 severe weather events
- Distributed:
- 275,000 sandbags
- More than 700,000 bottles of water
- 140,000 bags of ice
- 2,000 ready-made meals
- 56 aerial damage assessments
- 37 missing person missions
- 2 HAZMAT/Fire support missions
- Deployed 350 state and local personnel for EMAC missions in Louisiana (Hurricane Ida) and California (wildfires)
- Utilized 65 Disaster Reservists for emergency responses
- MEMA staff worked 9,500 hours in overtime
COVID-19 Mission:
- 647 days activated, since March 13, 2020
- Built 60-day State PPE Stockpile
- Delivered 21 million pieces of PPE to hospitals, long-term care facilities, first responders, state agencies, state legislature and schools.
- Fulfilled 93% of medical staffing requests from 67 hospitals statewide
Recovery: Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, Mitigation
- $800K distributed to 11 counties to repair 145 homes not eligible for federal assistance
- Assisted over 800 survivors via Hurricane Ida call center
- Established seven registration intake centers to register Hurricane Ida survivors for assistance
- Working 20 federally declared disasters
- Distributed $86,000,000 in disaster funds to county Public Assistance projects
- Closed 155 Public Assistance projects
- Approved 26 Mitigation projects
- Paid out $3.2 million to sub-recipients for Mitigation Projects
- Completed 21 Mitigation projects
- Managing 112 open Mitigation projects
- Hired 40 new MEMA employees
Preparedness:
- Taught 106 training classes to more than 1800 attendees
- 340,000 Participants for Great ShakeOut
- 195 Participants in Grand Gulf Nuclear Ingestion Pathway Exercise
Recognized Achievements
- Special Achievement in GIS Award – Esri User Conference
- “UAS Program of the Year” by the Unmanned System Group
- “Best NFIP Compliance Award” by FEMA
- Passed “Grand Gulf Nuclear Ingestion Pathway Exercise”
McCraney also assured that the agency is more than ready for whatever 2022 may bring.
