POPLARVILLE, Miss. (AP) - Pearl River County supervisors have awarded a contract to a company to oversee cleanup from Hurricane Isaac.
The Picayune Item reports that the contract was awarded Thursday to Dungan Engineering of Picayune. Dungan Engineering was one of five firms invited to bid on the contract.
The cleanup contract is expected to be awarded Monday.
Officials are hoping cleanup will begin by Wednesday.
All debris will be deposited in the Central Land Fill at Millard. There will be no burning.
Board president J. Patrick Lee said FEMA will pay for 75 percent of the cost of removing the debris, and the county and the state will split the remaining 25 percent.
Lee said extensive piles have been deposited along subdivision streets and county roads and was beginning to rot and smell.
"That's why we are moving as fast as we can under the emergency declaration so we can get this stuff out of here and to the landfill," Lee said.
Debris in all of the county and in Picayune and Poplarville is included in the pickup process. The pickup project will be tightly and strictly monitored through a GPS system, officials said.
Isaac's flood waters devastated homes and communities along East and West Hobolochitto creeks, the main Hobolochitto Creek and Pearl River and Wolf River. Extensive flooding was reported all along those rivers and creeks and hit hardest were Westchester Heights in West Picayune and neighborhoods in East Picayune.
Officials say at least 22 inches of rain fell over three days.
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Information from: Picayune Item, http://www.picayuneitem.com
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