DOL Awards Mississippi $800K Toward Storm Cleanup

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the agency is initially awarding US$800,000 to the Mississippi Department of Employment Security to support continued disaster-relief employment for Mississippi residents as the state continues to recover from severe storms, heavy winds, and tornadoes that killed 21 people and ravaged towns in March 2023. 

The funds are part of a National Dislocated Worker Grant, totaling up to $1.2 million, to support Mississippi in the hiring of temporary workers for storm debris removal and other clean-up work, as well as humanitarian assistance.

Administered by the department’s Employment and Training Administration and supported by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, National Dislocated Worker Grants provide funding assistance to temporarily expand the service capacity of dislocated worker programs at state and local levels when large, unexpected economic events cause significant job losses. A major disaster declaration on March 26, 2023 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) enabled Mississippi to request the funding.

As reported by CMMOnline, similar grants through the same program were awarded to Florida for disaster cleanup and recovery after Hurricane Idalia in 2023 and Hurricane Ian in 2022.