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Flood report could come next week

Posted January 22, 2016 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Staff Writer

The Flood of '15 is a memory, but the 23 counties declared state disaster areas are hoping paying for it doesn't become a nightmare.

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency expects to have a final analysis of the flood's statewide impact next week, roughly four weeks after the Mississippi River crested at 45.99 feet on the Chester gauge on Jan. 2.

"We appreciate the efforts of our local partners in compiling this information in such a timely manner," said IEMA Director James K. Joseph. "It's our job now to thoroughly review those submissions to develop a clearer picture of the impacts and determine our next steps toward helping these communities recover."

Although a far cry from the lasting effect of the Great Flood of 1993, the speed at which the water rose caught many by surprise.

"I was amazed at the different flooding that happened with it being more of a flash flood than the river itself," said Nancy Schilling, co-assistant coordinator of the Randolph County Emergency Management Agency. "It's always different, but this was more different on the Kaskaskia (River), it was hard to gauge it."

The IEMA reported 34 counties submitted local government cost information to the agency, while 14 counties submitted information on houses damaged.

Schilling confirmed Randolph County was one of those counties.

"It's in Springfield and they're reviewing the stuff," Schilling said. "We should have something by next week. They have asked questions on some of them."

Schilling has previously told the newspaper the county's damage threshold to be considered for state assistance is $119,073.

The county has already reached that mark and now, it will be a question if statewide damage meets the population-based threshold of $18.1 million to qualify for federal assistance.

Once the state meets that mark, individual counties would also need to meet a threshold of $3.56 that is multiplied by the county's population, which comes to $119,073.

Joseph, in a news release, said once the information review and analysis with federal guidelines is complete, a determination will be made on whether or not to request FEMA participation in preliminary damage assessments for homes and/or local government expenses in some or all of the counties that submitted Initial Damage Assessment (IDA) reports.

The incident period for the flood is Dec. 23, 2015 to Jan. 13, 2016. As such, the State of Illinois has until Feb. 12 to determine whether or not a request for federal assistance is warranted.

If the federal threshold is met, Gov. Bruce Rauner can request a major disaster declaration from President Barack Obama.

Schilling said the majority of flood damage reported by homes and businesses was basement damage. Final figures were unavailable Friday, but Schilling had previously told the newspaper that at least 14 homes and five businesses had reported damage.

"We didn't have a lot of them, but the ones that were damaged had significant damage," she said.

David Holder, Randolph County commissioner and budget director, said a portion of the $300,000 in contingency money the county included in its fiscal year 2016 budget would be used toward flood costs.

The county's fiscal year started Dec. 1. Less than 30 days later, the county was looking at the possibility of record flood crests.

"The biggest issue with the flood is going to be the overtime that was incurred by emergency management, sheriff's department - additional deputies on duty due to the flooded roads - etcetera," he said.

Holder said the sheriff's department would exceed its overtime budget because of the flood. Final amounts were still being calculated, but the ballpark estimate is $28,000 in overtime due to deputies working 12-hour shifts during the flooding.

"It's usually about 3 to 4 percent of the budget," Holder said of the contingency line item. "It's for those types of things where we know something will happen, but we don't know what that is yet.

"So, we have contingencies set aside and what we will do at the end of the year is move money from the contingency group in to cover that additional overtime."

"There will probably be other issues that will come along," Holder added. "Such as an accident or a problem and something you have to deal with. That's where the funding comes from to cover those types of things."

Holder said determining the right amount of contingency funds was based on a "historical best guesstimate" of what officials think it would be.

"Jim Schmersahl, the (county's) CPA, and myself have discussed it," Holder said. "I said 250 (thousand) and he said 'Why not 300?' and I said 'OK, 300.'

"There is an actual legal limit you're allowed to put in there and if I remember off the top of my head I think it's 10 percent of your general fund."

Holder said the county's general fund was around $7 million.

"So in theory, we could go to $700,000," he said.

Ultimately, Holder noted, the amount of contingency funds is "whatever you feel is necessary."

"Just because it's there, doesn't mean you must spend it," he said. "It's just there as an available appropriation if you need to spend it."

For now, the county is taking a wait-and-see approach. A combined Monroe/Randolph County levee commissioner meeting is scheduled for Thursday in Prairie du Rocher to discuss how to apply for federal funds to help repair the county's levees.

The Herald Tribune will have coverage of that meeting.

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