County still eyes flood relief funds
McHenry County isn't down for the count yet.
Despite the rejection last week of the county's certification as a disaster area by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, there's still a chance McHenry will get help paying for the expense of August's near record storms and flooding.
Federal lawmakers have asked President Bush to add McHenry, Cook and DuPage counties to the list of federal disaster areas. McHenry county leaders also have asked the state to resubmit its application to the president -- this time, with accurate damage estimates.
According to Bob Ellsworth, assistant director of the McHenry County Emergency Management Agency, the state low-balled the amount of monetary damage to public property as well as the amount local governments spent in public assistance.
"We said the costs originally totaled $1.5 million, but the information the state sent to Bush put it at about $370,000," Ellsworth said.
The county had 943 homes and businesses affected by the flood.
"Most of the damage was in the Nunda Township area," Ellsworth said. "We had flooding issues in Crystal Lake, Marengo, Woodstock and along the river in Algonquin. Lake in the Hills wasn't hit with much direct flooding per se, they had more road damage."
Woodstock Mayor Brian Sager expressed disappointment at the county's rejection.
"I think there's a tendency to believe that if people are not totally forced out of their homes that there is not a degree of disaster there," Sager said. "But we spent … we're still spending … a tremendous amount of time and money repairing the city."
Similarly, the majority of the Algonquin's $170,000 in damages to public property and overtime costs were in McHenry County, said Assistant Village Manager Jenna Kollings.
"Less than five percent of that occurred in Kane County," she said.
Algonquin spent more than $50,000 in overtime wages and about $99,000 repairing damage to municipal properties.
Working with local municipalities, McHenry officials "went back through and made sure the figures they submitted were still correct. Any additional damages or overtime hours were added to the damage assessed."
The amount the association resubmitted to the state was $1.3 million.
In a Sept. 27 letter to the president, 14 members of Illinois' congressional delegation requested Bush to "make the necessary declaration as soon as possible so that the residents of these counties can receive federal disaster assistance."
U.S. Reps. Melissa Bean and Don Manzullo joined U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama in signing the letter.
A federal declaration would allow local governments to recover up to 75 percent of the cost of dealing with the flood. It also could bring residents assistance for home repairs, temporary housing and other disaster related costs.
McHenry officials still are waiting to hear the state's verdict on the damage estimates in the next few days.
"We're not sure where (McHenry County's) damages are at right now," Ellsworth said. "Basically, it falls into what they will and won't allow to be claimed as damage."