I called our city manager Tuesday (coastal Alabama)

[trof]

I'm on the board of directors of our property owners' association.
Unlike some you may have heard about, ours is a very close, tightly knit neighborhood. Everybody looks out for everybody else.

Tuesday there was a rumor going around that someone had spoken with a city streets employee and had been told that we would be charged a fee for hurricane debris pickup. This has never happened before, especially in a declared disaster area. FEMA reimburses the city for 75% or 100% of the cost, depending on your "level" of disaster designation.
I was pretty sure that I had heard on TV that our county (Baldwin) and neighboring Mobile county had received such declaration.

I called the city manager. He's a friend and a good guy. Very good at his job. I asked him about it, and he did not know.

I asked him how he found out about it when Ivan hit. He said that he had been directly contacted by a FEMA official and by the governor's office and informed. He had received no such notification as of Tuesday afternoon. He would check into it.

When I hung up, I went to the FEMA website, and sure enough, there we were, "Baldwin County, Alabama. 100% reimbursement for debris pickup."

I forwarded the website to him.
We received the official announcement today.

I'm thinking this "new" (and improved?) emergency response plan, being used for the first time, s.u.c.k.s. Bigtime.

[Ripley]

1. Hope you don't have to pay for that Trof.

Glad you survived the storm!!!! Is your house okay?