One hundred eighty-five houses destroyed by May 10 tornado

Emergency management officials are saying 185 houses were destroyed by the tornadoes that ripped through Newton County May 10:

In Newton County, local officials are awaiting word on whether the county will qualify for a public-disaster declaration. The county received a private-sector declaration, which covers private residences and businesses, a few weeks ago.

Representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State Emergency Management Agency this week conducted another, more thorough countywide damage assessment, said Gary Roark, Newton County’s emergency management director. A preliminary assessment was done a little more than a week after the tornado hit.

According to this week’s assessment, the total number of houses destroyed by the tornado was 185, while the number of houses that sustained enough major damage to become uninhabitable was put at 90, Roark said. Preliminary estimates for those categories were 141 and 51, respectively.

Disaster officials, Roark said, quantify disaster magnitude in the private sector via the number of structures damaged or destroyed, but they place a dollar amount on estimates of the damage in the public sector.

The total damage in the public sector of Newton County was estimated at $6.5 million, according to this week’s assessment, Roark said. The preliminary assessment in May had indicated that damage on the public side was at least several million dollars.