Geneva, Ala. (WDNews) \u2014 Gov. Kay Ivey has awarded a $300,000 grant to the city of Geneva to help repair downtown streets and sidewalks damaged by a January tornado.<\/p>\n
According to the governor\u2019s office, the urgent-need Community Development Block Grant will be used to repair damage caused by an EF2 tornado that struck downtown Geneva on Jan. 25, 2026. The National Weather Service reported the tornado produced winds reaching 115 mph.<\/p>\n
City leaders said the damaged streets and sidewalks have created safety concerns for both emergency crews and pedestrians.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tornado that swept through southeast Alabama caused extensive damage in downtown Geneva, creating a potentially dangerous situation for residents,\u201d Gov. Ivey said. \u201cI commend city leaders for their quick action in securing these funds and taking another step toward a full recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the release, repairs are planned for East Westville Avenue, Greenwood Street, portions of the sidewalk on South Commerce Street and a public parking lot on East Town Avenue.<\/p>\n
Officials said a former hotel on South Commerce Street was destroyed during the storm, with falling bricks severely damaging the sidewalk. Other damage was caused by debris and heavy equipment used during cleanup efforts. On Greenwood Street, officials said an uprooted tree peeled asphalt from the roadway, while strong winds stripped away the top layer of pavement in several areas.<\/p>\n
The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is administering the grant using funds provided through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a community faces an emergency scenario like this, we are often able to work with them to deliver urgent-need CDBG funds to assist,\u201d ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell said. \u201cADECA is pleased to join Gov. Ivey in offering support to the city during a difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gov. Ivey officially notified Geneva Mayor David Hayes that the grant had been approved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geneva, Ala. (WDNews) \u2014 Gov. Kay Ivey has awarded a $300,000 grant to the city of Geneva to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,38393,38394,3810],"class_list":["post-72367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-geneva","tag-governor-kay-ivey","tag-grants-funded","tag-tornado"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116642410990111805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}