Beaufort County received word from FEMA that the damage assessments after Friday’s EF3 tornado is an estimated $5 million. The county has asked for assistance from FEMA and the state, according to county officials.

This assessment does not include people who have renters insurance because the county can only count personal property: cars, travel trailers, farm animals, and real property covering homes and buildings. The assessment does not cover items like furniture.

The county is waiting for a declaration from the federal government for individual assistance. According to John Pack, Beaufort County Emergency Management coordinator, tornado victims are going to have to prove how much insurance they have to see what they qualify for.

Wednesday, FEMA finished its damage assessment of the individual assistance portion and the estimation has been sent to Raleigh and FEMA Region Four in Atlanta. FEMA should notify Beaufort County mid-to-late next week, according to Pack.

There were 200 homes damaged by the storm, and 60 of them are not livable or totally destroyed, Pack said.

According to the assessment, 67 percent of the population in Beaufort County is underinsured.

“We know of that group (67 percent), 50 percent had no insurance,” Pack said. “That means two-thirds of the people had no insurance or were so underinsured they may receive nothing on their destroyed homes.”

“What that means is people had fire insurance on their properties, but because of the expense of wind insurance people may or may not have had wind insurance, which basically means they’re going to do nothing for their home,” Pack said.

If FEMA does not provide federal assistance to Beaufort County, county leaders will ask the state for help. The state aid asks for local a match, which would be 25 percent of the cost of assistance, Pack said.

“There are some cities that could not match that,” Pack said. “However, they are still county residents and this is a decision county commissioners will have to make, because I don’t make those kind of money decisions.”

Beaufort County does have a “rainy day fund” and there should be sufficient funds, according to Pack, but he wants people to know there could be more storms on the way.
After Hurricane Irene, Beaufort County had to fund nearly $2.5 million of the recovery effort, Pack said.

“If people have insurance, they definitely need to push their insurance companies, they need to push and push on those insurance companies,” Pack said. “Make them understand how important it is they get started if they can get started on their structure and moving back in or if they don’t have a structure, trying to find a place that is suitable within Beaufort County.”