Federal disaster declared to address local flooding

After months of clean-up, cataloging damage and efforts to maintain local infrastructure in the wake of massive flooding in April, the damage in northern Montana has finally been declared a national disaster by the federal government.

Counties included in this declaration are Hill and Blaine counties along with Daniels, Park, Roosevelt, Sheridan and Valley counties and the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

This declaration allows the area to make use of federal money to address the damage sustained in the floods that occurred after local temperatures rose dramatically in mid-April causing the accumulated snow and ice from a record breaking year to rapidly melt.

The flooding that ensued caused major damage to roads, bridges and other local infrastructure as well as businesses and residences.

A release from the White House says that President Joe Biden ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by all flooding from April 10 to April 26 of this year.

Blaine County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Haley Velk said the particulars of how this will work for Blaine County are still to be determined, but there is going to be an applicant briefing with Montana DES soon so they should have more details sometime afterward, especially regarding if and/or how many FEMA personnel will be provided.

Velk said Blaine County saw multiple rounds of flooding and this declaration will help pay for the repairs to the roads.

She said the actual work for about 90 percent of the repairs in Blaine County are done, but this declaration will allow them to pay for that work as well as the 10 percent that remains.

There are still a few big projects, she said, and this will allow the county to complete them.

Hill County DES Coordinator Amanda Frickel had not responded to requests for comment by the print deadline of this story.

Damage in Hill County has been particularly troublesome with roads having to be closed by an amount of damage that, many local officials have said would be impossible to repair without assistance.

In a forum shortly after the flooding in April, Hill County Road Department Supervisor Shane Huston said his department would do as much as it can with temporary repairs while they wait for funding.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said the damage had been extensive enough that many of the repairs had little chance of being done by the end of summer.

In the meantime local governments have been working to document the damage done by flooding as the work to repair as much of the damage as they can.

Along with its local disaster declaration, Hill County implemented a 2 mill tax to fund emergency repairs.

Hill County officials have said that just evaluating the damage took an incredible amount of time and resources, all in the hope that the federal government would declare a disaster.

While the declaration took some time to get, most local officials seemed confident that it would eventually come, with Frickel saying back in May that she was 70 percent sure that the damage was extensive enough that the area comfortably qualified for federal aid.

Before this federal declaration, Gov. Greg Gianforte declared a disaster May 17 due to flooding, opening up assistance from the state and bringing up consideration of the federal disaster declaration.

In his declaration, Gianforte said that Hill, Liberty and Blaine counties as well as Meagher, Valley, Daniels and Park counties, along with Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, and Fort Peck Indian Reservation, also declared emergencies or disasters.

He said the towns of Glasgow and Nashua declared disasters as well.

His declaration said all of these entities reported emergency costs and extensive damage to critical infrastructure to include roads, bridges and culverts.

This disaster declaration authorized the governor to expend funds from the state’s general fund to meet contingencies and needs arising from these conditions, and Biden’s declaration makes federal funding and assistance available to state, tribal and eligible local local governments and certain non-profit organizations for the flooding in the affected counties.

A release from FEMA said federal funding is available on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the flooding.

Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.

The release says Jon Huss of the FEMA has been appointed to coordinate federal recovery operations in the affected areas and additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.