Apr 3, 2008

Douglas County Commissioners and the local Emergency Management Office completed a preliminary damage assessment of county roads late Tuesday night with personnel from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) in an effort to obtain disaster funding for road repairs. Teresa Tost, of the local EMA office, said the county has been declared an emergency disaster area based on the reports completed about 10:30 Tuesday night. Due to the nature of the damage – and with more rain expected this week and the first part of next week – no ending date has been set at this time. County Road & Bridge employees are documenting their work and taking photos as they work on roads, which is necessary in the process of obtaining federal funding for the repairs. County officials say they are still finding roads that are totally impassable, with areas where residents cannot get out unless they are able to drive across a field. “There are areas where, if something happened and they had to get out, the only way would be by helicopter,” Tost said Wednesday morning. There are more than 200 concrete, low-water slabs in Douglas County, Tost said, and each one had to be documented on the paperwork submitted to SEMA/FEMA. Tost said there is not a road in Douglas County that does not have damage, but obviously, some are worse than others. During a period of less than two weeks in mid-March, areas of Douglas County received rainfall amounts of anywhere from 4 to 15 inches of rainfall, with the most serious damage occurring during a period around March 17. As long as the rain period continues, the disaster assessment will be ongoing and county road crews will continue to operate in an emergency phase. In the meantime, few reports of flood or storm damage have been received from individuals, Tost said. Residents who have experienced damage to private property from the heavy rains should contact the local EMA office at 417-683-3315 so damage reports can be filed with the state and federal agencies, in hopes of receiving additional funding for the county. Individuals can also contact FEMA directly by calling 1-800-621-3362, or you can go to the FEMA website and follow the links. Tost cautioned that the phone lines and website are extremely busy, and it may take a while to get through. Commissioners said road crews are still making emergency repairs to just get roads open at this time. Temporary repairs are being made to get roads open, with more permanent repair work most likely several weeks -- or months -- down the road.