MEMA: Assessing damage from Isaac ‘slow, tedious’

ACROSS MISSISSIPPI — Mississippi officials say assessing damages from Hurricane Isaac is a tedious task that will take time.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Jeff Rent says electricity had been restored to all but a few hundred structures in the state by today. Three shelters remained open this morning, housing 26 people in Forrest, Hinds and Jackson counties.

Rent says officials are studying damages in five counties where there’s interest in individual assistance grants. Under the current disaster declaration, the assistance is available only to people in Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, and Pearl River counties.

Rent says officials are assessing damage in Amite, Lincoln, Marion, Pike and Walthall counties, where numerous people applied for individual assistance.

Rent says assessing damage is a “slow, tedious task.”