Bollinger County to get federal aid

Bollinger County was the only area county named Thursday in a federal disaster declaration making individuals eligible for help recovering from last week's floods.

The announcement came a day after Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster evaluation teams completed their reports on the number of people hurt by the floods and the magnitude of the damage. Bollinger County was one of 19 counties included in the declaration. FEMA evaluation teams were working to complete their reports on an additional 22 counties. The team that evaluated Bollinger County is also responsible for the reports on Cape Girardeau, Scott and Stoddard counties. Perry County was not among the 41 counties being checked.

The residents of the counties not included in the disaster declaration issued Thursday by President Bush won't have to wait long for a decision, FEMA administrator R. David Paulison said in a news conference in the Red Star neighborhood of Cape Girardeau. Paulison spoke to reporters after completing a four-stop flood tour of the state that included a brief visit to Dutchtown.

A disaster declaration, he said, will be coming soon. "It should be days," he said. "A few short days."

The damage has been consistent across the areas he has visited, Paulison said, adding that "a lot of businesses have been disrupted."

Work will begin today to determine the losses suffered by public entities including cities, counties, school districts and electric cooperatives.

Bush declared 70 counties a disaster area last week, allowing federal agencies to assist in rescue and flood-fighting efforts. Now that waters are receding, another declaration is needed to open federal coffers.

AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com Delta resident Gary Diggs directs FEMA personnel down the the street to homes that were more affected by the floods than his own on Thursday, March 27, 2008 as they assess the extent of the damage.

When assistance to individuals and public entities is approved, flood victims will be able to apply for grants and loans to rebuild and government agencies will be able to seek reimbursement for cleanup and repair costs.

Cape Girardeau was the last stop on a four-city tour that included Springfield, Mo., Jefferson City, Mo., and St. Louis. He was accompanied to Dutchtown and to the Cape Girardeau news conference by Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, representatives from the offices of U.S. Sens. Kit Bond and Claire McCaskill and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson as well as state Department of Public Safety director Mark James and State Emergency Management Agency director Ronald Reynolds.

Kinder praised the state's coordinated response to the rains and flooding and said that effort was in part responsible for keeping the death toll from the storms and flooding to five people.

In Dutchtown, residents mingled with FEMA and Red Cross workers and visitors from Allenville and other locations as they waited for Paulison and his entourage. They swapped stories of the day and night of rain that turned creeks into rivers and sent floodwaters surging over the agriculture levee on the north side of the Diversion Channel.

AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com FEMA director R. David Paulison visited with residents of Dutchtown during a brief visit Thursday.

"We are going to get through it one way or another," said Phil Thompson of Allenville. "We are all going to get through it."

Allenville Mayor Erie Foster, who clutched a stack of photographs taken as his town filled with water, agreed. "They are all hanging in there," he said. "They are trying to survive."

When Paulison arrived, he greeted the residents, thanked the rescue workers and heard a plea from Dutchtown village clerk Doyle Parmer for help in building a long-planned levee that would protect the town from flooding. If no help for the levee is available, Parmer said, Paulison should start the process needed to buy the damaged homes and businesses so residents can remain safe in future floods.

Floods have been a part of life in Dutchtown, Parmer noted. But past floods have come slowly, giving the town time to prepare temporary barriers that keep the water at bay. To build the levee, the town needs another $264,000 as its share of the $3 million cost. The town already has about $500,000 for the project. "We need $264,000 to not be wet in the May of next year," he said.

AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com Bob George and Bob Harting went over addresses of flood victims with Voyann Smith, a Dutchtown resident and owner of the Smith Stop, on Thursday.

If no levee help is available, he said, many town residents want to sell their property.

The news conference was staged in the Red Star neighborhood to highlight the success of flood buyouts in keeping people out of danger. Buyouts move people out of the way of rising water rather than creating barriers to keep rising water off people.

In Cape Girardeau, buyouts began in 1995 and were completed in 2003, city manager Doug Leslie said. In all, 97 homes and three businesses were purchased in Red Star and Smelterville. An additional 33 structures were demolished. The program cost $2.7 million.

Buyouts, Paulison said, "are a success story" that resulted in the purchase of 5,000 homes in Missouri since the 1993 floods.

If buyouts are needed again, he said they will be coordinated with state and local governments. The Dutchtown levee, Paulison said, is the responsibility of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Both the levee and a buyout would require state or local matching funds. Kinder promised that when he returned to Jefferson City he will work to obtain funding that could be used either to complete the Dutchtown levee or provide the matching money for a buyout.

Lloyd Smith, chief of staff for Emerson, said the congresswoman has requested an earmarked appropriation for the Corps of Engineers to pay for the federal share of the levee but that the requirement for matching funds can't be sidestepped.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

Have a comment?

Log on to semissourian.com/today