Attending the meeting were Wahpeton Finance Director Darcie Huwe, Public Works Director Randy Nelson, the mayor of Dwight, Kevin Awender, Dist. 25 Rep. Clark Williams, county commissioners Tim Campbell and Bryan Flaa, Highway Engineer Tim Schulte and Emergency Manager Brett Lambrecht.
"We could have a very busy several weeks ahead of us," said Pomeroy. "I want to... become familiar with what you, as local leaders, are seeing as your threats, (and) I want to become familiar with the state of preparations."
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"The flood-fighting experience we all got last year has paid some dividends," said Pomeroy. "These are battle-tested veterans that are putting the plans together this year. It's very clear you've learned a lot from the experience we recently had."
The majority of the discussion focused on the impact of flooding on the county, Wahpeton's efforts to prepare for a major flood event, and their prevention efforts. City officials noted that an emergency declaration has already been submitted to the state, and detailed efforts to provide sandbags ahead of any potential flooding.
While Pomeroy was offering his assistance as a legislator in expediting federal resources, Richland County's leaders found there was little the federal government could do for its townships that the people of its communities haven't already been doing for themselves.
"Trying to get the resources necessary to protect a farmstead is hard," said Flaa. "There's nothing the federal government can do about it either. It has to be local volunteers. And we have some really good local volunteers here. We're very lucky to live in a community like we live in, because people help people."
The only complaint city officials had regarded the slow disbursement of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds last year. FEMA was exceedingly slow to reimburse local contractors for services such as snow removal and flood preparation. The counties did not receive their funds until late November, whereas Breckenridge, "only one mile away," received their reimbursement funds in July.
"It was a quagmire," said Williams, speaking to a problem occurring throughout the area.
Pomeroy promised to do what he could to expedite the process.
There were also complaints about how the availability of U.S. Geological Survey data has lapsed recently, due to a lack of funding. Even though local communities do partner with the USGS to relay events, Pomeroy seized the opportunity to express how average citizens were better at relaying information than the government.
"In Fargo, the winter was bad, so they had a huge investment, enormous resources committed, the city just straining flat-out... And they were giving bad numbers," said Pomeroy. "For all the fancy modeling, I came to rely on Denny Wallaker's dead reckoning. He'd go driving around with his thumb in the air... and had a better handle of what was coming at him than it seems the geological survey!" He added, "Feet on the ground's the best way to do it!"
Ultimately, though, the leaders of Richland County and the city of Wahpeton asked for very little, and instead spent the afternoon underlining the tremendous cooperative efforts of the community and their own extensive preparedness.
As Nelson assured Pomeroy toward the conclusion of the meeting, since 1997, "We've gone from flood-fighting to maintaining flood protection systems. It's more of a maintenance process than a scramble... It makes a big difference in our outlook."
RJ Richards wrote on Mar 8, 2010 8:12 PM: