OKLAHOMA CITY – The chairman of the Pittsburg County Board of Commissioners has declared his county a disaster area, “entitled to aid, relief and assistance,” because of repeated storms that have caused “considerable damage to public and private properties…”
Damage to Pittsburg County’s transportation infrastructure alone is estimated at $1.5 million to $2 million, Safety Director Kevin Enloe reported Tuesday.
Commission Chairman Gene Rogers, Vice Chairman Ross Selman and Member Kevin Smith signed emergency proclamations on May 11, May 20 and again on Tuesday, May 26. The proclamations were transmitted to the state Office of Emergency Management by Sandra Crenshaw, the commissioners’ first deputy.
In addition, state Reps. Brian Renegar and Donnie Condit, both D-McAlester, sent a letter to Gov. Mary Fallin on Tuesday, requesting disaster relief assistance. And Rep. John Bennett, R-Sallisaw, belatedly asked that his name be included on that letter.
With the ink on the state budget “barely dry,” the $71.9 million that Republican legislators diverted from the $254 million County Improvements for Roads and Bridges fund “is already sorely missed,” Renegar and Condit lamented.
They recalled that the state “rainy day” fund was tapped for $50 million two years ago “to address emergency funding needs” after tornadoes “wreaked havoc” in Oklahoma and Cleveland counties. “We would ask that you make the same consideration today for rural Oklahoma’s flooding devastation,” Renegar and Condit wrote. “Although we have addressed only one county’s loss,” the damage is “widespread” and resources to address the crisis are “limited, at best,” they concluded.
Governor Fallin scheduled an aerial tour Wednesday of storm and flood damage in Purcell and the Lake Texoma area. Renegar said he invited Fallin to visit Pittsburg County two weeks ago to view the storm damage firsthand.
Stormwater runoff washed out tinhorns and roadbed aggregate throughout Pittsburg County. A six-mile section of the roadbed and culverts on Burris Valley Road in southern Pittsburg County were washed out over the weekend, Commissioner Smith said. “It’ll take a lot of manpower and money to repair that damage,” he said.
Also in Smith’s commission District 2, the only road leading into and out of the community of Chambers sustained heavy damage in a washout (photo attached). “We still have four or five roads closed in my district, and several others are barely passable,” Smith said Tuesday.
Pittsburg County desperately needs financial assistance from the state and/or federal governments, Smith said. “We don’t have a million and a half to two million dollars laying around in the bank.”
State Rep. James Lockhart, D-Heavener, sent a similar letter to the governor Wednesday, requesting $50 million in financial aid from the state “rainy day” fund to repair storm damage in LeFlore County. Other signatories of the letter were Reps. Ed Cannaday, D-Porum; Johnny Tadlock, D-Idabel; and Renegar.
“We’ll have to wait for the water to go down before we can fully assess the road damage,” Lockhart said Wednesday.
State Highway 1 (Talimena Drive) is closed between U.S. 271 and U.S. 259 because of storm-related erosion. U.S. 270 is closed between Wister and Heavener and U.S. 271 at Wister; signs are in place and traffic will be detoured to Poteau and Heavener.
Also, U.S. 259 five miles south of S.H. 63 was closed temporarily because of a rock slide that began 80 feet above the roadway; Oklahoma Department of Transportation maintenance crews cleaned up the site on Memorial Day.
“I just got off the ‘phone with someone whose house is flooded and they don’t have flood insurance – and they’re not the only ones,” Lockhart continued. “Miles and miles of fences have been washed out, livestock has been washed away, and crop losses on the Arkansas River bottom north of Spiro” are substantial.
Hughes County Bridge
“We need help with boxes, bottled water, and manpower to help with the clean-up once the water goes down,” Lockhart said.
In Hughes County, Emergency Management Director John E. Roberts Jr. estimated infrastructure storm damage at approximately $1.5 million to $2 million.
Several Hughes County roads have sustained severe damage from storm water runoff. At least three bridges “are still under water” (see attached photo) and the wooden deck of one bridge floated away, he said Wednesday. More than a few Hughes County residents must detour 10 to 12 miles to get to or from their homes because of flood damage to county roads and bridges, he said.
Previous storms resulted in “damages to many private properties” and “several reports of barns and outbuildings, as well as carports and garages, being damaged or destroyed,” along with downed trees and “a great deal of damage to power lines,” Roberts reported.
A major transportation repair project in rural Hughes County involved the installation of two 10-inch diameter by 80-foot-long pipes May 8-12 to restore a crossing that washed out, stranding some residents for four days, Roberts related.
“If we don’t get some federal assistance on this, we’re screwed,” Roberts said bluntly Wednesday. One county bridge that’s been inundated for the past two weeks will cost at least $200,000 to repair or replace, he estimated.
Hughes County officials transmitted disaster proclamations to the state Office of Emergency Management on May 11 and again on May 26, records reflect. “We have road crews working five, six, seven days a week, trying to repair our transportation network. We’re working our way down the list as fast as we can.”
“We have a slow-motion continuing disaster” in McIntosh County, Emergency Management Director Wesley Dawson said Wednesday afternoon.
Residents of that county have had to cope with flooding from Lake Eufaula, “which is becoming quite a nuisance,” and storm runoff flooding that has “cut county roads” and has triggered flash flooding of bridges and other crossings, Dawson said. Some crossings have been repaired as often as four times this month, but some are under water again, he added.
A preliminary count showed 12 to 15 residential subdivisions “cut off” because of floodwaters or extensive damage to roads or bridges, Dawson said. “They’re using boats to get out, or they’ve cut cross-country paths and are walking or using four-wheelers.”
McIntosh County’s commissioners have issued two emergency disaster proclamations this month, Dawson said. The first was issued after flooding May 8-11 and the second was issued last Saturday, he said. The proclamations allow the commissioners to make emergency purchases without soliciting competitive bids, and will enable the county to seek reimbursement of some of its storm-recovery expenses from the Federal Emergency Management Agency if a presidential disaster declaration is issued.
President Obama signed an Oklahoma disaster declaration on Tuesday and authorized federal aid to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in areas affected by “severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds and flooding” during the period of May 5-10. However, residents of just three counties – Cleveland, Grady and Oklahoma – qualify for federal aid under that declaration.
MIKE W. RAY
Media Director, Democratic Caucus
Oklahoma House of Representatives
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