Cowley County residents could know as soon as this week whether they will receive federal aid to help cover the cost of cleaning and repairing basements damaged by flooding in late June.
Representatives with the Federal Emergency Management Agency were in Winfield Monday to make an assessment of the damage, Brian Stone, the county’s emergency management director, said this morning. FEMA officials asked Stone to identify office space in Winfield where applications for aid could be made if individual assistance is approved.
“We don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up,” Stone said. “But we’re trying. There was a lot more damage to people’s basements than even I thought. It’s considerable.”
Cowley County was already among a number of Kansas counties slated to receive federal money to cover the cost of emergency response efforts taken to combat the flooding and the immediate clean up of public places. But decisions on what money – if any – will be provided for clean up and repairs to individual homes are made only after FEMA crews make an assessment.
For now homeowners are being asked to sit tight and wait until a decision is made one way or the other. Many residents are anxious, Stone said, after finding out flooded basements are not covered by most homeowners’ insurance policies.
If a declaration for individual assistance is made, Stone’s office will release information about the application process through local news organizations and other avenues. Stone said he has not gotten an idea whether this county will be approved.
“I couldn’t get a feel at all for what will happen but they said we should know something this week,” he said “I can say things are happening faster than we expected. I got a call from FEMA saying they’d be here first thing Monday morning, and they were.”
Other, harder hit counties have already gotten approval for individual assistance and that raised concern about whether Cowley County would eventually be included.
On Tuesday, representatives from the Kansas Department of Emergency Management visited Winfield to assess the damage to public facilities. The Winfield Fairground, the Winfield City Lake and a number of county roads were heavily damaged by floodwaters.
Now that the high waters are gone, extensive infrastructure damage is easier to see. A bridge near Winfield was washed out and a number of roads need considerable repair.
“We’re talking millions of dollars in damage,” Stone said. “But that’ll happen when you get that much rain.”
State officials gathered damage estimates from each city in Cowley County, the Winfield school district and numerous townships and will make a decision on how to move forward with reimbursement.
