(LEX 18) — How has the federal government responded to deadly flooding in Eastern Kentucky? Amid criticism, FEMA says they've made record progress to "kickstart recovery."
"Since we've been here, we knew that we had to come in and we had to be innovative so that we could go ahead and kickstart recovery, and that's what happened from day one, with our partnership with Kentucky emergency management, the leadership from the FEMA region as well as leadership on the ground here. Thinking about innovation so that we could kickstart recovery and so that we could do what we can to help people during, after, and before disasters," said Federal Coordinating Officer Myra Shird.
Shird sat down with several media outlets to talk about FEMA's progress one year later.
The numbers show about $280 million has been pumped into Eastern Kentucky over the past year from the federal government. That number also includes money that may need to be paid back.
In the past year, FEMA has contributed nearly $108 million for housing assistance and other needs and more than $49.4 million for 408 infrastructure projects. Their national flood insurance program paid $24 million toward 400 policyholders' claims.
It's a small dent of 28% in the $1 billion in damage state leaders estimated.
"Surely, we can't build back that beautiful home that someone had, but we can give as much as we possibly can," said Shird.
Between July 25 and 30 last year, heavy rain brought devastating flooding to the region, killing at least 45 people. Shird says FEMA was on the ground since day one because they were already working on previous recovery efforts in the state.
With more extreme weather expected in the state due to climate change nationwide, Shird says they will be ready to address increased needs.
"One of the things is we have strategies in place for that. One is about educating folks about what is going on with the climate and also making sure that we have staffing available to be out for all of these disasters that have happened. And we are seeing them in a more frequent nature," said Shird.
Shird says Kentucky was not impacted by the 35% staffing shortage gap across the disaster workforce reported by the GAO.
"We were able to cross-train people, utilize people in different areas that were not necessarily what their specialties were when they came here. But as we did cross training, and as we had other folks that were supporting, and mentoring, we were able to fill those gaps, whatever gaps we came up with here in the Commonwealth, we were able to address them and we have a great group of professionals here that have backgrounds in areas that they work in, as well as other careers that they've worked in. So they brought all of that expertise to bear," said Shird.
She added that when they heard residents and state officials' complaints about the slow speed of processing aid, they listened.
"I think we did a great job in partnering, and I think we can be better at everything that we do. So, we did, we did come in. We did rise to the occasion. We listened, that was the one thing that we did do, and I think we did that very well," said Shird.
Shird wanted to highlight that FEMA staff visited more than 24,000 homes and individuals to offer guidance and made offers to 241 different homeowners in six high flood-prone areas.
There is more work to do toward recovery from this disaster and years past. While 37 people have transitioned, 92 people are still in temporary FEMA housing after one year.
"Recovery is slow. But we have been consistent. We've had great partnerships, so we've done what we can," said Shird.
Where does that leave Kentuckians when the next severe weather event comes in? Largely relying on insurance.
"Completely covered is going to be a difficult thing for me to talk about. I think that folks should reach out to their local insurers and talk about their own specific risk. Those that are in special flood hazard areas definitely need to look at flood insurance and look at what types of policies they need. And I think that it's based upon what those persons are trying to insure," said Shird.
But those special flood hazard areas used to determine whether someone has flood risk are outdated because of climate change. It's impacting infrastructure project approval, availability, and the rising cost of flood insurance.
Shird says she doesn't have a timeline for when the flood maps will be complete. Neither does the State Energy and Environment Cabinet.
The maps help people and insurance companies access risk.
"We have multiple flood mapping studies ongoing and have story maps to inform the public of their flood risk. We also have data viewers showing the preliminary data. Effective flood maps are available at watermaps.ky.gov/RiskPortal/ and also at https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home. Story maps and data viewers can be found here https://eec.ky.gov/Environmental-Protection/Water/FloodDrought/Pages/FindYourFloodZone.aspx," said John Mura, Executive Director of the Office of Communication. As part of this, we are meeting with community officials/residents within the watershed being mapped. These meetings allow us to work with the community to determine problem areas, and we discuss potential areas of mitigation where targeted construction projects, which could be at least partially funded by FEMA could decrease flooding hazards."
For those Kentuckians in areas that are not documented flood zones because of delays in updating but have experienced flooding, EEC advises Kentuckians to contact DOWFloodplain@KY.gov to determine if preliminary data is available that can help them reduce their flood risk.
Mura says Division staff can review their site and based on the availability of updated data, provide preliminary information to help.
Another alternative Shird advises is taking a close personal assessment of your risk.
"I think that when you're talking about risk, we do have to look at what have you seen? And what do you know? And if you've been flooded two, three times in the last four or five years, I think that's where we start in looking at what we see locally. I mean, that's, that's the walk-out-the-door version of it," said Shird.
