County won't get disaster aid for roads hit by storms this year

Davison County won’t receive any disaster funding for its storm-damaged roads this year, said Davison County Emergency Management Director Jim Montgomery.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is working to process 550 applications for assistance from counties and townships. Flood relief was the topic of a roundtable meeting led by U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., in Corsica last week at which local, state and federal officials discussed the need for a long-term mitigation plan for flooding.

But in the meantime, roads need fixing.

“FEMA has money for roads, but you must have major damage before you qualify,” Montgomery explained.

A qualification threshold is developed by multiplying $3.30 by the population of the specific county under consideration.

For Davison County, that number is $61,845.

Try as they might, Montgomery said, “We were unable to reach that figure.”

Montgomery said he, Highway Superintendent Rusty Weinberg and County Commissioner Jerry Fischer “drove and measured all roads for storm damage but were unable to find damage that qualified.”

“FEMA has money, but that doesn’t mean they’re giving it away,” said Fischer. He said the county also was unable to meet FEMA guidelines after flooding in 1997.

Other higher-population East River counties that were not included in the July 1 federal disaster declaration for aid were Minnehaha, Brookings, Lincoln, Bon Homme and Yankton.

With a population of just 3,058 residents, Aurora County easily exceeded its qualification amount of about $10,000, EMD Dave Baker said. FEMA will pay 75 percent of approved costs.

“We had a lot of washed out roads and culverts, Baker said, “but what really killed us was that we had a lot of standing water in our ditches that eventually soaked into our roadbeds.”

That water caused affected roads to soften when gravel in the road base mixed with less substantial materials, he said.

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