FEMA: a major player in flood recovery

By TOM KANE

NEW YORK & PENNSYLVANIA - What do Frank Smith, Roger Maltby and Richard Martinkovic have in common?

The three are the emergency management coordinators for Wayne, Pike and Sullivan counties and they are extremely busy. In fact, it could be said that over the past week, they were going crazy.

Smith has an excuse for being the craziest of the threesome because his communication center, located in the basement of the Wayne County Courthouse, was flooded on the first day of the storm and he had to move out. It was the third time that the department had to move in the height of an emergency. It happened with Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, with the April 2005 storm and this one in June 2006.

Smith is now temporarily ensconced in the former Stourbridge Elementary School at the Park Street Complex in Honesdale, PA. “We expect to be here for six months or so and then find a new, permanent home,” he said. “I hope!”

All three counties have been declared disaster areas and are eligible for FEMA funding. “There are two FEMA programs: one for individual residents and businesses, and the other, called public assistance, will help municipalities with things like infrastructure problems, equipment loss and labor costs,” Maltby said. The program for individuals and businesses is functional in all three counties.

As yet, Sullivan County in NY has been approved for the program that will help pay for infrastructure. Pike and Wayne counties in PA have not yet been approved, but it is expected to come soon.

In addition to FEMA grants, New York residents and businesses are also eligible for the State Individual and Family Grant Program.

“Anyone in New York can apply for both these two programs,” Martinkovic said. The second program’s purpose is to pay for things FEMA will not pay for, he said.

In Pennsylvania, “Governor Rendell has included 34 counties in the state in the application to FEMA,” Maltby said. “We didn’t sustain the kinds of damage we incurred last time. We didn’t experience the flash flooding they had in Wayne and Sullivan. Most of our damage was the streams overflowing. So we don’t expect FEMA to give us funding for infrastructure, except for expenses incurred in immediate response to the early flooding.”

Maltby said Pike County had rendered some assistance early in the storm to Wayne County since their communication center was flooded. “We helped them until they got their temporary center functional,” he said.

Any lessons learned?

“[U.S. Senator] Rick Santorum and (U.S. Congressman) Don Sherwood were here two days ago, and I asked them that question,” said Borough of Matamoras Emergency Coordinator Gary Babb. “They both said that they would work hard to get the Army Corps of Engineers to come and develop a mitigation plan of some kind along the river. Maybe we should put some kind of high banks that hold the river back, or a series of large culverts that channel the water to places where it won’t do as much harm.”

Number of homes destroyed

In Sullivan County, 701 homes were affected by the recent flood and about 40 were destroyed, according to Martinkovic.

In Wayne and Pike, 217 dwellings were affected by the disaster while 14 were destroyed, rendering them permanently uninhabitable, according to the Wayne County Chapter of the American Red Cross in Honesdale, PA.

How to apply for FEMA funds

Individuals and businesses in all three counties can call 800/621-FEMA (3362) to apply. The local municipalities have no role in the application process.

Residents and businesses should have a phone number where they can be reached, a social security number, a current mailing address, the physical address of the affected property, a brief description of the types of damage and insurance policy numbers available when calling FEMA.