Evacuated 2011 - Day 16 - July 7, 2011

Yesterday I spent about an hour with the FEMA Disaster Team. Picked up a lot of information on cleaning up after a flood, tax info and started the process to apply for a low interest loan through the SBA for repair and renovation. Not much more can happen until the water recedes enough to get into the neighborhood. The house needs inspections by a various people to trigger the repairs and loan process. Not sure when that will be, hopefully in the next week to 10 days. It sounds like pumping the basement will be a slow and methodical task. A foot or two a day and then wait a day or two before pumping more. I have heard of people pumping out 2-3 feet of water and within a day or two it is all back due to the level of the ground water. The river is now below 1557 feet, (flood stage is 1549), so we have a ways to go. The storm sewers will not start functioning until the water is in the channel and lower. It is believed that the river channel is deeper than it was due to the volume and speed of the water going through. May allow storm drains to kick in and work a bit faster. On the other hand, the city is not sure about water lines and sanitary sewer lines that were crossing below the river. They may or may not be there. One question that is arising is this. As neighborhoods return to work on their homes, what do we do about sanitary facilities. In many areas there will be no water for a while. We may have to drop Porta-Potties in locations around town for residents to use. Many questions and problems continue to rise.