City of Vicksburg trucks and equipment were headed to Kings this morning to begin removing flood debris.

“Our plan is to get set up and get started,” said Vicksburg landscape director Jeff Richardson, who is supervising the debris removal.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Friday to use city employees and equipment, and to hire four monitors rather than hire outside contractors to monitor and handle flood debris removal.

The debris will be taken to the Waste Management transfer station on U.S. 61, where it will be transferred to Waste Management trucks and taken to a landfill.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides disaster assistance grants to cities and counties for debris removal, emergency flood protection measures, and repairing, replacing or restoring public roads and buildings, and eligible private nonprofit facilities damaged by the flood.

But Warren County administrator John Smith told the Board of Supervisors on Monday that right now the city and county are eligible only for reimbursement under FEMA Category B.

Category B covers protection costs, such as overtime by city and county workers and law enforcement, and material and equipment used during the flood fight.

To be eligible for reimbursement for debris removal and work such as road and bridge repairs, Smith said, the president must issue a disaster declaration.

To get a declaration, he said, the state must show a total of $3.8 million in flood-related costs and damage.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Nicole Pressley said MEMA does not yet have a damage estimate. She said state emergency management officials are still doing flood damage assessments. Some of the affected areas, she said, remain flooded.

After the disaster declaration is issued, Smith said, the city and county must have a total of $162,000 in flood damage and costs to qualify for other FEMA reimbursements.

Vicksburg grants coordinator Marcia Weaver said that as of Friday the city had incurred about $432,430 in expenses from its flood fight. That figure, she said, includes overtime for city employees and police officers, and the cost of equipment used by the city during the flooding.

“That’s not a final figure, and it does not include debris removal,” she said. “We are still working (on assessments).”

Smith said the county is evaluating its expenses from the flood and still assessing damage.

“I know we had damage in the southern part of the county and the northern part of the county,” he said. “We need to get out and see what people are piling on the roadsides.”

Water from the 2011 flood damaged a large number of homes in the Kings, Waltersville and Ford areas of Vicksburg and in the southern end of the city off U.S. 61.

It inundated homes and blocked roads in several areas of the county, and forced the evacuation of residents in the Eagle Lake and Lake Chotard areas.

The waters threatened Redwood Elementary School and covered Mississippi 465 and U.S. 61 north of the school.