Tagged: FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has disaster survivor assistance crews available in Macomb and Mason County this week to help flood victims register for federal assistance.

Des Moines County is close to completing a project that is more than four years in the making.

Regional Planner Dan Eberhardt says 19 structures in the northeast corner of the county had to be addressed after the devastating flood of 2008.

He says about 2/3 of them have already been demolished, with the remaining 6 in Huron Township to be taken down within the next few weeks.

The lots are as large as three acres. 

The remaining demolition projects would complete the county’s buyout program.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has agreed to compensate Warsaw for some of the money it paid to repair its  water treatment plant after it was badly damaged by the 2008 flood.

At the time, the city expected to be reimbursed 100% for the repairs. FEMA later decided the city was due 75% of the repair costs because the county didn't meet its poverty guidelines.

City finances were strained to come up with the $285,000. The city has tried to recoup that money ever since.

County Board Chairman said FEMA has agreed to pay two-thirds of the city's share.

The Mississippi River flood of 2008 heavily damaged the water treatment plant in Warsaw.  At the time, FEMA told the city it would cover the the entire cost of getting the plant back online.

Hancock County Board Chairman David Walker said FEMA did not fulfill the promise.  Instead, it paid 75% of the cost.  That left the city to come up with $265,000 to get the plant running again.

Walker said that was a hardship.

He said, “They had to take it out of their own funds.  Every city, every county, every municipality is hurting on the amount of money that they have.”