Federal Emergency Declarations May Help Cover Flood-Related Costs For Levee District 3

How much federal money Levee District 3 may be able to get for recent flood events was one of the topics discussed at the district board’s monthly meeting on August 12.

Board member Tom Okenfuss asked whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was expanding the previous emergency declaration or creating a new one.

“There are two declarations,” president Vern Bauman said.

Norm Gallup, pump house operator, said the first one was from March 11 to April 28.

Bauman reported that he has also received a letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stating that the district is eligible for Public Law 84-99 [PL–99] help for flood damages.

Bauman said there is a lot of silt that will need to be cleaned out once the river goes down. There will be no way to know how much silt needs to be removed until the river falls more.

“We may have need of one [PL–99]  for that for silt [removal],” Bauman said.

He later added that some of the interior drainage might be covered by it as well.

See complete story in the August 21 edition of the Herald.