Marshall County Highway Supervisor Jason Peters updated the commissioners on
FEMA’s recent visit and their assessment of the county’s roads, bridges and culverts after suffering flood damage.
He said FEMA looked at the county’s local and minor roads to determine what kind of funding would be available if the state meets the threshold for reimbursement. All major roads would need to be addressed by different group of people and Peters said he will make some phone calls this week.
Peters noted that the county met the local threshold in estimated damage. He said the reimbursement for the roads wouldn’t cover the entire cost of repair.
“The number they gave me to look at was $636,259.21,” said Peters. “That doesn’t mean that we’re getting that money that is just based on what their assessments were. For bridges, they gave us $298,000 on those and culverts $56,803.99. So, ballpark that gave us about $991,063.20.”
Peters told the county council members last week in an emergency special session that the estimate for all of the damage is about $4 million, but FEMA has their own criteria when it comes to estimating damage.
“They go on depreciation, what the preexisting road looks like before you get to any flooding issues and more. It’s pretty educational to see how they work and analyze things, look at them and view them.”
The county could see about half of the engineer’s estimate on bridge repair and about a quarter of the overall cost of all repairs to roads, bridges and culverts in potential reimbursement funds.
