For disaster relief, it’s hurry up and wait

When disaster strikes, FEMA is a good friend to have to help pick up the pieces.

In addition, FEMA pays 70% of recovery costs. Then the state reimburses the stricken community 12.5% of its costs associated with the disaster. Sounds like a pretty good deal.

But the community has to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait some more.

It takes seven years to be reimbursed.

So with friends like that, the question may be asked, who needs enemies?

But patience is a virtue.

The Sequoyah County Commissioners know what it’s like to wonder if the check’s in the mail. That’s why District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers recently asked Jonathan Teague to look into the reimbursement process.

“Whenever we have a disaster declaration, FEMA comes in, whatever’s messed up, they will pay 70 percent of that, and then state later on will come in and pay another 12.5% on top of that,” explained Teague, deputy director for the Sequoyah County Emergency Management. “The problem that we’re running into is that it takes about seven years for those [reimbursements] to come in. In fact, it’s takin’ them so long, they’re calling them ‘legacy payments.’

“What happens is the legislature has to appropriate the money in order to get those funds, and it takes awhile for that to happen. The last payment y’all had money appropriated was June 30 of last year. Y’all got a big payment, and that was just from the severe storms on May 26, 2015. So seven years, it took seven years to get that 12.5%.

“You’ve still got three more [claims] open in the county, and they’re not being paid. The next one was from Feb. 10, 2016, and the guy I spoke to at OEM (Oklahoma Emergency Management) said to expect the payment right there at the end of the fiscal year on that, too. They’re being paid, it’s just takin’ a very, very long time,” Teague told the commissioners.

“They also wanted us to know this: We’re the only state in FEMA District 6 — which includes us, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas — that actually pays a state 12.5%. Those states [legislatures] pay nothing when there’s a FEMA declaration. Some states in the country that’ll pay a full 25 percent, but in our FEMA Region 6, our state’s the only one that’s gonna pay 12.5%.

“So that’s where the money is. I would expect another payment to be made June 30, but altogether, the state funds still out about $350,000. There’s a lot of money out there, but it’s not gonna come in a hurry.”

Teague also told the commissioners that Covid cases for the week of March 11-18 were down from the mid-20s the previous week to 16. To begin the year, there were about 60 cases per week. He said the record number of cases for the county was in January 2022 when the county had 1,151 cases for a week.

Teague also said Skywarn storm spotter training is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. today, which was rescheduled from March 16, ironically enough, due to severe storms.

In other business, the commissioners approved an agreement for work on private property by and between Zak Hooker and Sequoyah County District #2.

“Up on Moonshine Road, somebody thought it’d be a good idea to plug a tinhorn with concrete, so water’s backing up on one side of the road. This guy just acquired this property with that water being backed up, and we’re fixing to unplug that tinhorn,” reported District 2 Commissioner Beau Burlison.

The commissioners also approved an asphalt contract by and between Sequoyah County District #1 and McKenzie Asphalt LLC for road project on Old Highway 64 in Moffett for three miles.

“It’s gonna finish the old highway, which is a busy road for us,” explained District 1 Commissioner Ray Watts. He said a CIRB project from 2018 helped fund highway work “from Muldrow city limits to Moffett Bottom, so this will finish the extension and all will be, basically, new through there.”

The commissioners also approved a transfer of appropriations from District #1 T2 account to District #1 T8 account in order to make an equipment purchase.

Then Burlison told of an unexpected telephone call.

“I had a guy call me from Tennessee this week,” he started. “His wife broke down in Vian there at Love’s. You don’t get a whole lotta calls like this, but he just asked for a welfare check to have them come by and visit her while he was on his way [from Tennessee to Oklahoma].

“He emailed Governor Stitt, and thanked the people at Vian that she was checked on four or five times. It was a lot like Mayberry,” Burlison said, throwing in some nostalgia for good measure.

“His kids live in Wichita, that’s halfway, and he’s talking about maybe moving here and relocating, just by the way he was treated.

“It’s nice to get a letter like that from just some things happening around here from people that don’t live here. We can take a lotta the things for granted. This is a very good place to live and raise your kids, and we have good people that work here. Everybody has, for the most part, I feel like, good intentions. So that was a good call to get.”