Americus: Sumter Hospital to get almost $10 M

Vehicle flipped over by tornado in Sumter Regional
Hospital's parking lot. (Photo: Dave Bender)

FEMA will provide Sumter Hospital in Americus over nine-million-dollars in funding for temporary facilities. Both the hospital and the town sustained severe damage from a lethal twister on March 1st.

The funds are part of two projects to construct temporary facilities, known as COGIM units, until the main hospital is rebuilt.

Ambulance off-loads patient at hospital's makeshift
tent-triage area. (Photo: Dave Bender)

One project is for the structure's outer shell, and will cost just over $2 million dollars. The second, which will kit out the facility's interior, will run to almost seven-and-a-half-million dollars. The say the total bill for the renovation will cost nearly $12.5 million dollars.

Republican Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson announced the step on Monday.
Both termed the cash influx as vital, and praised the hospital and the community's ability to cope with hardships in the tornado's wake.

FEMA will distribute the money to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, who will in turn disburse the funds to cover the project's expenses.