Disaster

declaration

expected

Declaration would

assist in recouping

flood damage costs

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Even though Brown County did not make the initial list of counties designated as disaster areas from spring flooding and storms, the county's emergency management director, Jane Starz, said there is a "good chance" that the designation will come.

"We fully expect to be included in the declaration in the next few weeks," perhaps as early as June 1, she said.

Starz is basing that assumption on comments made by Buford Fry, the Federal Emergency Management Administration's reviewer of damage-estimate paperwork, who visited Brown County last Thursday.

"He told me the reason the county wasn't included in the initial declaration was that the water level in the county remained too high for final damage estimation," she said.

Gov. Jesse Ventura submitted a list of 51 counties for disaster relief designation to the Bush administration on May 9. The president issued a declaration covering 30 counties on May 16.

That list included all the counties in which FEMA had verified the extent of damage through on-site visits, Fry told Starz.

"Actually, Fry did not do much on-site checking of damage," Starz said. "He pretty much took us at our word, but we had everything pretty well documented with photos and descriptions.

"So, I think it's pretty safe to say that we haven't been passed by; it's just the process," Starz said.

Obviously, this development comes as good news to the residents whose homes were diked to ward off flood waters. Those living on the river side of Front and Valley streets in New Ulm were particularly threatened.

Street Commissioner Tom Patterson reported work on removing the earthen berm protecting those homeowners began May 3.

"Street department crews, with the assistance of Public Utilities workers, began removing the berm from the alley off Valley" where the rising waters from the Minnesota River threatened to undermine the main dike. The alley -- the lowest point along that berm -- was where flood water started backing up through a storm drain behind the dike.

"All the houses along South Valley now have access to their backyards and garages," Patterson said.

The big question remaining is whether the Bush administration will respond favorably to pleas by Minnesota's congressional delegation to leave the federal disaster reimbursement level for Minnesota counties at 75 percent. The administration had already moved to return disaster reimbursement to the previous 50 percent level.

Second District Congressman Mark Kennedy has likened the change to "changing the rules in the middle of the game," and has urged the president to restore the 75 percent level.

It would make a big difference for those New Ulm homeowners because they must pay for installing the berm on their property and for its removal.

"They requested it so the city has to charge them for doing it," Patterson said.

If Brown County isn't declared a disaster area, those homeowners have to pay 100 percent of the cost; if the president doesn't relent, they will end up paying half the cost.

"When we find out what the situation is," City Treasurer Gary Gleisner said, "then the city will invoice them for their share of the cost. If they don't pay the bill, then there would be a public hearing on making it a special assessment."