Congressman Rick Allen joined public safety officials of Bulloch County and its cities Wednesday at the county's Emergency Operations Center to talk about the impact of Hurricane Matthew and the availability of federal disaster relief money.

Afterward, Allen praised Bulloch County's effort, expressed condolences to families of two local people whose died as a result of the storm, and noted that further steps will be taken through the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and its federal counterpart, FEMA. County and city officials, who are keeping track of dollars spent on overtime, fuel and materials, say storm-related costs should top a $248,000 threshold for Bulloch to qualify for 75 percent reimbursement.

"Your folks are on top of it," Allen said. "Your emergency management people are outstanding, and Georgia Power did an incredible job getting power back on."

Officials of the state agency, GEMA, plan to meet with local officials Friday, and GEMA will then submit reports to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he noted. Allen said his role at this point was limited to explaining the process. Any problems with GEMA would be addressed through state legislators and the governor, but Allen's office would address any concerns with the process at FEMA, he said.

Bulloch County was the location of two of the four deaths attributed to the storm in Georgia over the weekend. James William "Jimmy" Altman, 68, died after a building he was in on Clay Road was hit by large trees, and Matthew Ryan Ward, 27, died from injuries after the vehicle he was driving was struck by falling trees on Burkhalter Road. Both deaths occurred early Saturday.

Allen, an Augusta Republican who represents Georgia's 12th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, requested the names of these men to send their families condolences.

"We just asked for their names and we just wanted to let them know that our prayers and thoughts are with them," he said.

Local officials told Allen that as many as 100 private homes in Bulloch County were damaged.

The estimate was based on specific knowledge of about 50 damaged homes, according to Ted Wynn, Bulloch County Emergency Management Agency director.

"But I'm hazarding a guess of those we don't know about that haven't reported their damage," Wynn said.

City and county building and zoning staff members will make a determination if homes are moderately damaged, heavily damaged or uninhabitable, he said.

Storm-created trash

On the public side of the impacts, the biggest remaining question was what to do with "tons and tons of refuse" from the cleanup, which will probably also be the biggest cost factor, Allen observed.

The waste disposal problem is a shared concern for Bulloch County and the city of Statesboro. Together, they own an inert waste landfill - which receives limbs, tree trunks and materials such as untreated lumber - and a transfer station that sends household waste out of the county. But the city of Statesboro manages these facilities.

Based on reports from the landfill, Statesboro Deputy City Manager Robert Cheshire estimated that the volume of yard waste alone will be two to three times the 4,000 cubic yards, or about 1000 tons by weight, dumped after a February 2014 ice storm.

"When we met with the county today we were trying to determine how we're going to deal with such a volume that we haven't had to deal with before," Cheshire said. "We've only got so much space in our inert landfill, so we started discussing some options on where to take it and some other options."

Additionally, the transfer station is receiving an unusual volume of household waste, since residents dumped the contents of refrigerators and freezers after power outages, he said.

Free yard waste disposal

Statesboro residents should place their yard debris, including leaves, limbs and trees cut into manageable portions, at the curb for city trucks to pick up, Mayor Jan Moore said.

"Don't take them anywhere; let us pick them up," she said.

But county residents outside the city limits should take their yard debris to a county convenience center that has a large bin for this, or directly to the landfill, she said.

For a few days, she said, the city will not charge Statesboro or Bulloch County residents who haul this material to the landfill themselves, but will continue to charge contractors the usual tippage fee.

Ice storm example

Allen said he advised local officials that "proper bid procedures and proper documentation are critical" on claims for disaster reimbursement.

The previous example officials are looking to as a basis for comparison is not Tropical Storm Hermine, which caused relatively little damage here in early September, but Winter Storm Pax in February 2014. The weight of ice caused tree limbs to fall, resulting in extensive power outages. Afterward, Bulloch County, Statesboro and Portal received about $280,000 in federal disaster expense reimbursements.

"Winter Storm Pax was good training for us," Wynn said. "We are very familiar with records that have to be kept, payroll records, equipment records that have to be kept, and we met early last week in anticipation of this hurricane coming this way, so we started that record keeping early on, and that continues today."

Law enforcement agencies, fire departments, road and street departments, the EMA itself and other agencies are keeping track of these costs. Cheshire estimated that between 100 and 150 of the Statesboro's 300 city employees were involved in the storm response, beginning with preparations Friday.

Bulloch officials met with Allen to express their interest in a public assistance declaration for the county and its towns. If the declaration is issued, the local governments will be eligible to be reimbursed 75 percent of their disaster expenses by the federal government, and in some cases the state government will kick in 10 to 15 percent, Wynn said.

"We don't have a declaration yet," he said. "We anticipate meeting on that in the next few days, and then hopefully within the next week we'll know about a public assistance declaration."

The threshold for Bulloch County and its cities to qualify, he added, based on their population in the 2010 census, is roughly $248,000.

"We believe that we're going to well surpass that and as a result should get that public assistance declaration and then get that 75 percent federal funds," Wynn said, "and then the governor will make a decision about any addition to that."

Individual help unlikely

But the number of uninsured local homes with damage is unlikely to meet a threshold for individual assistance through FEMA, Wynn said. The minimum appears to be 582 uninsured, damaged or destroyed homes in a jurisdiction, he said.

Local officials asked Allen about the possibility of a statewide qualification for individual assistance so that homeowners could at least get low-interest loans, and Allen said he will look into it, Wynn said.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.