County receives flood event update

Lake County Commissioners heard an update on the flooding situation from the county’s Emergency Management Director during their regular meeting on Tuesday.   Kody Keefer met with commissioners and told them that the American Red Cross assessed more than 850 homes in the county as of last Friday and found that eight homes had been destroyed, and 287 of them had major damage.  He said that the Red Cross also reported that more than 250 homes had minor damage caused by flooding, and 285 of them were affected in some way by flood waters. Keefer said that according to the Red Cross, there are still 17 homes in the county that are inaccessible as of last Friday.  

Keefer said that they are still urging people to call 211 to report damages as they still want to collect damage assessments.  He said they are continuing to try to document and collect data in order to have information available as they move forward and seek assistance and reimbursements, as well as work on flood mitigation efforts.  

Keefer told commissioners that he will continue to look into information as the county waits for the President to act on the Governor’s request for a disaster declaration following last month’s flooding, a process that he said will take some time.  

Keefer said that the state currently has declared four disaster declarations, and the second of those was just approved by the President last week.  

Lake County Commissioners on Tuesday also agreed to assist the city in the cost of a second phase of a Section 22 flood risk management study to be done by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  The cost of the study is 150-thousand dollars and City Commissioner Jeremiah Corbin asked county commissioners Tuesday to help with the 50-percent that the city is responsible for. The city commission voted Monday to go ahead with the study and had 50-thousand dollars budgeted this year for it.  The county commission agreed to pay 25-thousand dollars toward the cost of the study as well. County commissioners also directed the State’s Attorney’s Office to put together a Memorandum of Understanding between the county and city in regards to the study.