Newton County still hoping for FEMA disaster declaration

June 02--NEOSHO, Mo. -- In the wake of what so far has been a spring punctuated with storms that have resulted in some historic flooding, many Newton County residents were outside on Thursday in the good weather. Many of those who were not could be found talking with insurance agents, or still working on homes and businesses.

Though much has been done to clean up, towns within the county have much more to do. And several are looking to the federal government, waiting for it to approve the state's application to be declared a federal disaster zone, opening up financial assistance primarily for flood repairs.

In Newton County, eight road districts reported about $508,000 in damages to roads and bridges, said Charla Geller, the county's emergency management director. She added that all of the reported numbers were preliminary estimates and that she expects all of them to go up.

She is reporting that 12 homes and four mobile homes were destroyed, 151 homes had major damage, 92 homes had minor damage, and 93 homes were affected by the flooding about a month ago. Three businesses were destroyed, nine businesses had major damage, and 20 businesses had minor damage. To be considered "destroyed," there must have been more than 4 feet of water inside a structure.

Seneca, Neosho and Granby were among the hardest hit towns, Geller said. Many of Seneca's businesses had to close because of the flooding, and walking bridges in Granby were taken out by the water.

Geller said that she has been receiving frequent calls asking if the federal government has declared the state a disaster zone. On May 26, President Donald Trump approved Oklahoma for FEMA assistance for the flooding that took place within the same time period.

Drew Erdmann, the Missouri's first state chief operating officer, said in a conference call Thursday that because there was more flooding damage in Missouri than Oklahoma, the state's assessment took more time.

"The scale of the devastation and the time in order to complete the damage assessment, which is the standard FEMA process, took longer precisely because our state was more impacted," Erdmann said in the conference call. "There was not a holdup on our side."

From preliminary statewide estimates, there was $28 million in damage to homes and businesses, as well as about $58 million in damage to roads and bridges, Drew Juden, the state's public safety director, said. About 1,200 homes statewide were destroyed or had major damage.

Historically, it takes 10 to 13 days for the federal government to respond to an application. Gov. Eric Greitens submitted Missouri's application for federal disaster declaration on May 24.

In the meantime, 1,400 people have been assisted by various government agencies, Juden said. The governor has also appointed Patrick Baker, the lieutenant governor's former chief of staff, as Missouri's flood recovery coordinator.

In Neosho, much of the debris on roads has been cleared and major areas that were impassable have been repaired. Through donations and volunteers, baseball diamonds in Morse Park, which were ruined, were resurrected in time for Little League season, Neosho Mayor Ben Baker said.

However, like a wall weakened by water damage, looks can be deceiving.

"We are thinking it will take a year to get close to normal," Baker said.

Baker said several homes on Riverside Drive and Stratford Place near Hickory Creek, as well as on North Jefferson Street near Big Spring Creek, still need repairs.

Much of Morse Park was covered in debris. Fences were mangled, trees were cracked in half and felled, and playgrounds were devastated.

Because of more critical repairs needed elsewhere, parks have been put on the back burner. Baker also noted the loss of the frisbee golf and soccer fields.

"Who knows where the soccer goals are," Baker said.

Aryelle Caruso, of Seneca, and Crystal Wilson, of Goodman, walked through Morse Park on Thursday, surveying the damage for the first time since the floods. Both Caruso and Wilson, who teach at schools in Newton County, said they have had to watch their students suffer with the consequences of recent extreme weather. They recalled the tense days when they called all of their students to see if they had managed through.

Caruso said that as a mother of four children of varying ages, she was happy to bring her kids to Morse Park, where there were things for all of her kids to do. In Seneca, she said, there was a week where almost all the businesses had signs on their doors saying they were closed for repairs.

The playground in Seneca was hit as well.

"My 6-year-old asked me if we could go back and get more sand for the sand pit," Caruso said. "She was really sad there wasn't any sand left."

A little way from Morse Park, the bottom half of Creekside Apartments were empty of tenants but full of tools.

The day before the floods, workers had done the last of the apartments' remodeling by laying carpet, said owner Kris Smith.

For her, the hardest part of the flooding was seeing her tenants lose much of their belongings. She visited several of her tenants in temporary shelters after the flooding, she said, and found that many of them didn't have insurance.

"If a bed was lost, the bed is lost," Smith said. "I wish I had $40,000 that I could just go around and give everyone a bed."

If FEMA is a go

Once the federal government has declared Missouri a disaster zone, victims will have 60 days to register a claim. Area emergency management agencies will begin to advertise contact information when a declaration is issued.

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