By Kay Wilson

After the June 17 Nodaway News Leader’s article, two representatives from federal officials arrived in the county June 24 to get further information from the county commissioners and staff about the lack of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursement disaster dollars when spring 2019 flood waters took out a bridge in Atchison Township.

Matt Barry, field representative from US Congressman Sam Graves’ office and Chris Naylor, constituent services for US Senator Josh Hawley, met with the commissioners to get more information about the FEMA reimbursement for the replacement of a $239,436.38 bridge near Clearmont located on 140th Street. The bridge was washed out by a spring storm in 2019 and was closed, deemed impassable for the school bus and USPS rural letter carrier plus residents who lived nearby. The 6 to 10 inch rain storm, considered to be a 100-year event, dropped the I-beam supports 4 to 6 feet into the creek and water flowed over the sunken bridge.

As the commissioners and staff retrieved multiple documents sent to and received from FEMA noting the denial of reimbursement expenses for the representatives, Burns said, “I have never seen a more legitimate event for FEMA to accept and pay.”

But as the county has been denied twice by FEMA and with the only comment from the federal agency being, due to “lack of maintenance,” the leaders had called upon Graves and Hawley’s office to apply pressure to FEMA to determine the county’s recourse for the case of reimbursement. The bridge was rebuilt by the county bridge crew and opened for traffic in 2020.

FEMA did reimburse the county and townships for other expenses from the same storm including washed out culverts, loss of gravel, grading and ditching work.

While the duo did not promise anything, they did say they would keep the commissioners in-the-loop from their meetings with FEMA people. On June 29, Barry, who noted at the June 24 meeting there are other counties fighting for reimbursement with FEMA, did call the commission to request another set of documents to be used at his meeting with FEMA employees.