Lincoln County residents seeking a safe haven from fierce stormswill soon be able to take full advantage of a federal and stateprogram to provide family sanctuaries.

The “Safe Room” program was placed on hold to allow stateofficials from seven southern states to meet – with the goal ofredistributing more in federal disaster mitigation money into thestorm shelter program, said Lea Stokes, a Mississippi EmergencyManagement Agency spokesperson. At a meeting earlier this month,$11.7 million was approved for the program, she said.

“That nearly doubled what was originally obligated,” shesaid.

Mississippians should begin receiving acceptance letters soon,Stokes said.

“Hopefully, next month they’ll start sending out thoseacceptance letters to everyone that applied,” she said.

The additional funding means residents who applied under”priority one” status should receive the full amount forrecompensation, Stokes said. Applicants must build the shelterprior to receiving any funding through the program.

There were approximately 3,200 priority one applicantsstatewide, she said.

The maximum awarded to any eligible program participant is$3,500 for residential structures and $5,000 for communityshelters.

The program, designed to reimburse up to 75 percent of eligiblecosts to property owners for the construction of storm shelters,was placed on hold in June when the Mississippi EmergencyManagement Agency was overwhelmed by the statewide response.

More than 100 Lincoln County residents applied for the program,said Clifford Galey, the county’s civil defense director. However,not all of the applicants received “priority one” status, whichsignifies the property was damaged during Hurricane Katrina.

The initial $6.6 million appropriation for the project, whichwas more than the project was funded in total during its first fiveyears, was simply not adequate to meet the demand, Stokes said.

“It had never been this popular before,” she said. “We hadnearly 100,000 applications.”

A majority of the program’s applicants did not suffer damagefrom the hurricane, but hoped to build family shelters and receivesome reimbursement of their costs.

The remaining funds could possibly be split among thoseapplicants or used to build more community shelters at publicfacilities or churches, she said. Stokes could not say how any ofthe remaining funding would be distributed.