Federal aid is likely 10 days away, leaving the Red Cross and church and community groups standing in the gap in Vicksburg to assist hundreds of evacuees remaining here indefinitely.

“I just got the official word from FEMA,” Warren County Emergency Agency Director L.W. Callaway said this morning, “and it’s not that good.”

FEMA will be taking applications for a variety of assistance – but only from displaced people and probably no sooner than Sept. 19 – at a site yet to be selected.

“They’re stretched to the max,” Callaway said, “and quite naturally they’re starting south and working north.”

Applications for federal aid will also be taken from Warren County residents after displaced people are served.

In other developments: