BAY MINETTE – The Baldwin County Commission voted Tuesday, Nov. 2, to lift the states of emergency for COVID-19 and Hurricane Ida.

Zach Hood, Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency director, told commissioners that the Alabama state of emergency for COVID-19 was lifted Sunday, Oct. 31 by Gov. Kay Ivey. He said the county did not have any reason to continue the local declaration.

He said one purpose of the state of emergency was to allow the county to receive material needed to deal with the virus, such as personal protective equipment, but the county has enough supplies, and the number of cases is dropping.

“We have looked at our resources locally,” Hood said. “We have a stock of PPE. Our numbers have been in the single digits and, finally, we’re seeing the death rates reduced. Unfortunately, there are still deaths, but our hospitals are not overburdened, like they were a few months ago. We’re back to elective surgeries and we’re back to our normal way of business.”

Baldwin County’s transmission rate was listed as “moderate,” on the Alabama Department of Public Health COVID-19 website. The rating was the second lowest of four, below “low” and ranking above “substantial” and “high.”

The county’s rate of new cases was 36.3 for each 100,000 residents. The state rate was 41.7, according to the ADPH website.

The county also ended the state of emergency for Hurricane Ida. The storm came ashore in South Louisiana on Aug. 29. Hood said Alabama and Baldwin County did not receive enough damage to qualify for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The hurricane, however, did do $385,000 in damage to Baldwin County. He said most of the damage was to county-maintained roads.

“These storms are very serious,” Hood said. “They are very damaging. They’re life-threatening. We just want to remind everyone to adhere to our warnings for our next storm system.”

Commissioner Billie Jo Underwood that if Baldwin County had received emergency money in time to repair damage from Hurricane Sally in 2020, Hurricane Ida might not have had as much impact on the area.

“Some of the damage that we had to our roads were roads that had not been able to be completely repaired from Hurricane Sally, especially the washout that we had out by Styx River,” Underwood said. “Had we been able to have the FEMA money ahead of time, it may not have been even that much.”