Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: News

Sheets of rain could turn into paper money for the city.

Nearly a week after the July 18 flooding in Kirksville, Codes and Planning Director Brad Selby escorted representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the State Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration around the city to appraise the damages to small businesses and homes. Their job consisted of determining whether or not the extent of the damages meets the criteria for applying for federal aid.

 "They told us later that day that they were recommending to the higher- ups that if there was a disaster declaration for this part of Missouri, that their opinion was that Adair County would be included in that," Selby said. "We don't know if their opinion has been accepted, or if their recommendation was accepted or if we have been declared. I haven't heard anything."

 Selby said the city's problems mainly centered on local businesses, which fall under the individual assistance level, and roads, which had been assessed at the public property level. Adair County commissioners also took FEMA representatives to see some of the residents outside Kirksville who were displaced.

 Some city and county residents faced damage to their property inside garages or around their houses, which does not get covered by federal aid, Selby said. Residents who lost items like beds, furniture, appliances and clothing might be considered for assistance according to FEMA criteria.

"If you had a three-bedroom house and only two people live there and one of the bedrooms was flooded, they're not going to pay anything," Selby said. "They would if it took out [your] water heater. It depends on the level of disaster declaration that would take place too, and of course we don't know that."

Randy Behrens, Kirksville emergency management director, said he has called SEMA about once a week to inquire about the status of their request, and so far, he hasn't heard anything except that it's being reviewed on a national level. On Aug. 6, Gov. Matt Blunt sent a letter to FEMA requesting to reopen the first declared disaster period that occurred in mid-July because of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers flooding to incorporate other Missouri counties and their flood damages from the rain in late July.

The second flooding had disturbed the Mark Twain Reservoir's dam that had kept the floodwaters down from the first big rain. SEMA spokesman Susie Stonner said this released water into the Salt River and caused flooding in the counties not only behind the dam, but near the Salt River.

She said that when FEMA assessed the damages to public property because of the flooding in Adair, they decided it met the threshold, meaning the local government would receive reimbursement for up to 75 percent of its damages.

She said FEMA also helps with individual assistance and that the small Business Administration gives property owners low-interest loan applications to help restore businesses.

The state's request for opening a second incident or to combine this incident with the first disaster period still is being reviewed by those on a national level.

"We had expected to hear back very quickly," Stonner said. "We don't know when we'll hear from them."

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