Financial Assistance For Flood-Related Home Repairs Unlikely

Jun. 26--Damages from spring floods, while qualifying the county for recovery aid, are well below thresholds to qualify individual homeowners in the county for federal assistance, emergency management officials advised.

Public works staff continue monitoring road flooding and repairing road and bridge damages as persistent rains keep sending swollen streams and runoff from saturated fields across roadways.

Emergency Management Director Adam Weishaar and Road and Bridge superintendent Don Brittain updated the county commission Tuesday morning about ongoing efforts to deal with the lingering flooding.

No individual aid

Weishaar advised the county has easily qualified for the federal assistance for repairs to roads and bridges, but damage reports for individual aid have not reached the required threshold.

Based on its population, the county needed to suffer some $243,000 in damages to qualify for the 75 percent federal reimbursement, which it can use for road and bridge repairs, possibly the mosquito reduction, as well as recovering costs of repeatedly having to block roadways because of flooding.

"The money doesn't come immediately," Weishaar warned. "Reimbursement is usually at least a year out or further. For the flooding in October, we're still gathering information on that. We were not even close to the end with the October flooding when we went into another event."

That event, from floods occurring since April 28, remains ongoing.

"The state hasn't closed it, so we keep adding to it," Weishaar said.

He's heard a lot of complaints from the public "that you're not helping us," Weishaar said.

"Unfortunately, we've not met the threshold for damages to have individual assistance, where FEMA will help us. Individual assistance usually requires 250 or more individuals who have more than 40 percent value in damage. We haven't met that. No one in the south-central region has met that."

Reports they've received, Weishaar said, show some 20 homes have significant damage to them, with another 180 that have minor damage.

"For SBA (Small Business Administration) loans, we're talking about requiring 25 homes with 40 percent or more damage to qualify for zero interest loans," he said. "We haven't met that number either... Everyone is seeing this."

"Because Trump declared a disaster people think FEMA money is coming, but it simply is not," he said.

Residents can call Reno County VOAD for assistance with mold remediation, and carpet and sheetrock removal, Weishaar said, but that funding is also limited.

"I sympathize with people, but we don't have the help for these citizens," he said. "We're limited on what we can do."

Not over yet

"Cow Creek is still on its way up," Weishaar advised Tuesday morning. "It's not going to crest until tomorrow at 12 feet. There's still water coming down from upstream, and we're supposed to get strong weather again tonight, so we're not out of the woods yet. Everything is full and the runoff is a problem because the groundwater is so high. Some people have said they've had water in their home from the groundwater for the past seven weeks and there's no end in sight."

His and public works staff are getting tired, Weishaar said, from working six- and seven-day weeks.

They attempt to post road closings at least twice a day, but it's challenging to keep the list current, he said.

While they have received calls from the public about water over roadways, they only list a road as closed if that word comes from law enforcement or city or township officials.

Two bridges remain closed because of flood damage, Brittain said, and both will be added to the bridge replacement list, bumping two others off until later that the county had expected to replace this year.

The closed bridges include the McNew Road bridge, north of K-96, and one on Fountain Green Road, between Worthington and Woodberry.

"McNew will be next bridge," Brittain said. "We'll get started on it within the next two weeks."

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