County assessing damage from September flooding

Lake County Commissioners heard more information during their meeting this week about the damage assessment and numbers involved with last month’s flooding in the county.  Emergency Management Director Kody Keefer told commissioners that for the last couple of weeks, he has been working on compiling preliminary damage assessment information.  

Keefer said that an estimated more than 45-thousand sandbags were used during the flooding, and many of the bags used were brought in from different counties and the state Department of Transportation.  He said that with all of the roads that were closed and needed barricades during the worst of the flooding, the county had around 350 barricades that came from outside the county.  

Keefer said that volunteers played a huge role both during and after the flood.

Keefer said many of those hours were logged by a volunteer group called Christian Aid Ministries that came in to help with the flood recovery.

Keefer said that the Red Cross reports 851 damage assessments to homes in the county, with four of those homes destroyed, 287 majorly damaged, and 254 minorly damaged.  The remainder of the homes, Keefer said, were reported as either affected or inaccessible because they still had water surrounding them. 

Keefer said that within the next couple of weeks, he will be meeting with state and FEMA officials when they visit the county to conduct public and individual assistance inspections.  He said the county should more than meet the minimum amount needed in order to qualify for federal assistance.