Tuscumbia declares state of emergency to expedite insurance reimbursement

It has now been more than three weeks since an EF-1 tornado ripped through downtown Tuscumbia on Feb. 15.

Though the tornado itself was short lived, the cleanup effort in the aftermath will take some time.

As part of that effort, the members of the Tuscumbia City Council held a special-called meeting March 7 in order to declare a state of emergency.

This declaration had not been made prior due to falling short of the damage levels needed to receive aid from FEMA.

However, the city’s insurance adjuster advised the Council to make a declaration after making an inspection of multiple city intersections that have been temporarily left without working traffic lights.

“We went around to the intersections where the red lights were down from the tornado,” said Mayor William Foster. “While he was standing there, there were almost two wrecks. He explained to us it’s a safety issue for the public. He told us to do a local emergency act that would allow us to speed up the money for the intersections.”

Foster said declaring the state of emergency could take as much as a month off the process of being reimbursed for work done to the traffic lights.

The traffic signals at North Commons and North Main, Main and Fifth and South Hook and Old Lee Highway are the top priority, Foster said.

The City has two bids for the work, which was set to start at the beginning of this week.

“We want to get the lights at our intersections up and running in a timely fashion to help ensure the safety of residents,” Foster said. “That’s why we held this meeting on short notice.”

Some of the affected intersections are missing one or both traffic lights, while some are also missing poles while others just need new bulbs.