County seeks disaster aid eligibility

TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
At least 10 rural gravel roads, including Kite Road, just off Route F southeast of Maryville, are currently closed in Nodaway County in the wake of heavy rains and flash flooding that swept across the Maryville region during the last two weeks of July. County officials have asked that Nodaway be added to a list of 68 Missouri counties declared eligible for federal disaster assistance on Aug. 7.

The list of 68 Missouri counties approved Aug. 7 for federal disaster aid related to this summer’s heavy rainstorms and resultant flash flooding did not include Nodaway County.

However, the Nodaway County Commission is doing its best to remedy that, and county emergency management coordinator Christy Forney said Friday there is still ample opportunity for Nodaway to qualify for funding.

Forney said Nodaway and approximately seven other north Missouri counties were left off the list in the first place because they sustained relatively little new damage to bridges, tube crossings and other transportation infrastructure in late June and early July and opted not to respond on the state’s initial request for damage estimates, which were forwarded to Washington.

But in mid-July, Nodaway County was hit by a series of storms that dumped more than 10 inches of rain on the area in a week.

Before that deluge, Forney said, many of the trouble spots dotting the county’s 2,000-mile network of gravel and dirt roads consisted of washouts caused by heavy rains and flooding in 2014.

Since a lot of that damage has yet to be repaired using FEMA dollars allocated earlier, but which, in several instances, the county has yet to receive, the commission decided that seeking funds through the latest disaster declaration was unnecessary.

“A lot of this is the same old spots getting hit over and over,” Forney said.

But because the mid- and late-July series of storms caused a significant number of new washouts, Nodaway is now seeking inclusion among counties already on the roster for the latest round of aid.

Forney said there is nothing especially problematic about that, and that she is reasonably sure the amount of havoc Mother Nature wreaked on drainage tubes and bridges last month will meet the minimum FEMA dollar threshold for assistance.

She said she’ll know more after a FEMA team arrives in Nodaway County to conduct a preliminary damage assessment, referred to as a PDA. A date for the assessment has yet to be set.

According to county Road and Bridge Department records, 45 tube crossings and eight bridges are on the county’s original request list for FEMA dollars. Nine of those projects have been completed.

Assistance has also been requested at seven additional locations where logs and brush have washed onto tube crossing or bridges, with one site complete.

Nodaway County Road and Bridge Supervisor Larry Dougan said Friday that about ten roads in various parts of the county remain closed due to tube or bridge washouts.

The Aug. 7 announcement by Gov. Jay Nixon that President Barack Obama had approved Missouri’s latest request for federal disaster funding eligibility said the declaration was related to flash flooding and severe storms occurring from May 15 to July 27.

Nixon said the list of 68 eligible counties was longest for any natural disaster in Missouri since the so-called “Great Flood” of 1993.

Not counting Nodaway and the other counties now seeking aid, the prolonged period of flooding and severe storms caused an estimated $38 million in damage to roads, bridges and other public infrastructure and resulted in at least 10 deaths, according to the release issued by Nixon’s office.

Nixon first declared a state of emergency in Missouri on June 18, an action that activated the State Emergency Operations Center and mobilized the State Emergency Management Agency in an effort to assist local authorities.

The governor later extended the state of emergency through Aug. 14.

Nodaway was virtually alone in not being included on the initial list, which included the nearby counties of Andrew, Buchanan, Gentry, Holt, Atchison and Worth.

Statewide, disaster aid-eligible counties also include Adair, Audrain, Barry, Bates, Benton, Caldwell, Chariton, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Cole, Crawford, Dade, Dallas, Daviess, DeKalb, Douglas, Gentry, Harrison, Henry, Hickory, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Laclede, Lafayette, Lewis, Lincoln, Linn, Livingston, McDonald, Macon, Maries, Marion, Miller, Moniteau, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Osage, Ozark, Perry, Pettis, Pike, Platte, Polk, Putnam, Ralls, Ray, Ste. Genevieve, Saline, Schuyler, Scotland, Shannon, Shelby, Stone, Sullivan, Taney, Texas, Washington, Webster, and Wright.

Forney said Nodaway’s disaster funding eligibility request is for public assistance only, meaning that any forthcoming aid will be earmarked for county-owned infrastructure.

On July 21, the governor also requested assistance for private landowners who sustained losses due to severe weather in Barry, Clay, Christian, Greene, Jackson, Jefferson, Knox, Lewis, Lincoln, Marion, Osage, Ray, Ste. Genevieve, Stone and Webster counties. That petition is reportedly still under federal review.