RINGGOLD, Ga. – Catoosa County received its first check from FEMA this week, reimbursing the county for repairs after flood damage in September.
Around Northwest Georgia, other flood-damaged areas also are seeing money trickle in.
“It’s slow coming in, but it’s beginning to come,” said Trion Mayor Johnny Ingle.
Catoosa County Manager Mike Helton said his county’s first Federal Emergency Management Agency check – about $88,000 – will support eight projects, including roadwork, overtime hours and debris removal.
“This first one was just what we expected,” Mr. Helton said.
FEMA is covering about 75 percent of the repair costs, a “pretty good rate,” Mr. Helton told county commissioners this week.
Georgia’s Emergency Management Agency will handle 10 percent of the tab, leaving the county with 15 percent, Mr. Helton explained.
Walker County, which submitted $1.4 million in requests to FEMA, has been paid for “a handful already,” according to county coordinator David Ashburn.
While he said the funding is about where he expected it to be, Mr. Ashburn said he wishes work could have begun on East Reed Road in Noble, which remains impassible five moths after the flood.
The county first thought a new culvert would be enough to fix the road and drafted a plan and a budget. When engineers said a bridge is needed instead, the cost rose by several thousand dollars and the county had to redraft its proposal.
Trion was one of the areas hardest hit by the floods. It has received nearly $167,000 from FEMA for six projects, including repairs on several government buildings.
The town is wrangling paperwork so FEMA will buy a handful of apartment buildings too heavily damaged to save.
“It’s a time-consuming thing,” Mr. Ingle said.