Members of the Georgia and Federal Emergency Management today will be assessing damage in Gwinnett County caused by Tropical Storm Irma to see if homeowners are eligible for federal assistance.
The county so far has assessed 200 homes that suffered damaged and found 158 of those were either destroyed or suffered structural damage.
Gwinnett Director of Emergency Management Greg Swanson say some of the hardest hit areas were south of Lawrenceville into Snellville.
The assessment by GEMA and FEMA will determine if a declaration of emergency is appropriate so individual assistance can be made available to homeowners such as grants or low-interest loans. Such as declaration has already been made for public assistance qualifying the Gwinnett County government to apply for assistance with cleanup.
“We’ll be taking them on a tour of the most damaged areas in Gwinnett County and let them evaluate those damages for themselves,” he tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.
Swanson says it’s the first time such as declaration has been made since the floods of 2009.
“In 2009, we had over 400 homes that we did in our first local assessment,” he says. “Once we got declared in 2009, we know we had over 2,000 residents contact FEMA.”