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No FEMA Help: Escambia Stuck With Millions In Flood Costs
July 12, 2012
The entire tab for flooding in Escambia County will fall on the county and its insurance companies.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has turned down the state’s request to declare a disaster area due to the June 9-10 weekend rainfall event that flooded portions of the county. That means FEMA won’t help the county pay for damages and will not offer any assistance to individuals that were impacted by the record setting rains that exceeded 20 inches in some locations.
Overall damage in the county was estimated at well over $20 million, including $10 million to public buildings and $3 million to the Sheriff’s Office.
Damage to buildings will be covered by insurance, but the county will be left with about $4.5 million in uncovered damages to roads, bridges and drainage infrastructure.
Pictured: Flooding damage June 9 at the Escambia County Jail. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
21 Responses to “No FEMA Help: Escambia Stuck With Millions In Flood Costs”
Fema states governor scott did not ask for escambia county individuals. He did ask for santa rosa county. Hense that’s why santa rosa is on femas list of approved counties people. I say shows me the papers where he claims he asked for a
This help for us. I guarantee you will not find any request.
REGARDING:
“The Blue Angles waste up plenty of money every year flying over the Pensacola Beach,”
Nah, the Blue Angels are a recruitment tool for the United States Navy.. The money is not wasted. Further, they need to continue to practice so they aren’t killed during demonstrations.
David for The Blues
FEMA MONEY. The Blue Angles waste up plenty of money every year flying over the Pensacola Beach, the State of Florida should ask for a loan from the Blue Angles. The Fuel Cost and the Cost of the Sheriff Security at the Beach should cover the Flood Damage in the City of Pensacola. Tell the State of Florida to apply for a flood loan from the Blue Angles.
Do ya think that perhaps with all the rain and hurricanes Florida gets and Escambia in particular get that the county would take preventative measures. Such as cleaning out the drainage ditches, cleaning out the sewer openings, removing debris and overgrown grass and treesfrom the creeks that run through the county. But no. The commisssioners would rather file a claim with FEMA to get free money for projects they want done. Meanwhile the private citizen will see his insutance bill increase because he filed a claim. Insanity of course.
REGARDING:
“If we had A demo governor we would have got FEMA money. That is just a fact.”
Like we did when Jeb Bush was governor after Ivan and Dennis and others? No, wait. That can’t be right because Jeb is a Republican. It sure looked like FEMA, though. In fact, FEMA helped recently but only in counties actually hurt by Debby.
Go figure.
David thinking
I’m very confused. The county vehicles are self insured. (I know this to be a fact) so doesn’t that mean that there is money put aside to cover damages? If I chose to self insure my home/car then I have to have a bond of a certain amount to cover any damages to myself or others.
This will happen at all states with Republican governors. That is the way this administration works. If we had A demo governor we would have got FEMA money. That is just a fact.
Like Bob said,
No more building in Florida:
It is prone to Hurricanes and has lots of flood zones.
My question is what is the advantage of building a jail on a flood plain? Especially one with a basement.
We have life insurance, automobile insurance, medical insurance, homeowners insurance and God knows insurance. We have to pay for that, not the government. We pay just about every kind of tax that they can think of so the government can manage their operations. Now please tell me that they have insurance, and that our taxes won’t go up again.
So, we have a little flooding and some boneheads can’t move county owned cars and we have some building flooding, then go crying to FEMA? Bull Shark.
So, Carolyn Bramblett… I salute you. You’ve made the most astute post on this thread. Let’s do stand on our own 2 feet. FEMA = Feeble Economic Mistakes w/o
Accountability.
It seems in Florida(love my state) we are hail bent on living on tourism, and doing ever thing we can to get folks to come here. Now, if we do not cut back as a country, and stop the out of control Federal spending, there will be no tourist. Mobile, just got AIr Bus, Very good move, There is nothing stopping us from doing the same thing.But this mentality of ever time some thing goes wrong we look to the Federal government to bail us out has got to stop.We are currently working on being 16 trillion dollars in debt by the end of the year. WE are broke.This has always worked, can’t afford it? Simple, do not buy it.
Well if we can not afford to do it our selves, then we better put it on hold, we also as a county must learn to control spending, whats more important? Police protection, yes fireman first responder’s yes, teachers , use the lotto to fund all education, not just pet projects, roads and bridges, well what do you need worse? Need a bridge , fix it, roads being , fix, well ? I sure with the modern advances in autos and truck, we can put up with pot holes.Sorry time to quit relaying on Uncle Sam for ever thing.We are broke as a nation, Hey if we want better roads, guess we will pay for them won’t we?And by the way, don’t build on water fronts in a hurricane prone area, or in flood zones, If you do, buy insurance. And it is not a mandate, you chose to build their your problem , not mine or any one else’s.
@ Bob: are you suggesting that we not repair/replace the roads and bridges or do we raise local taxes until the repairs/replacements can be made in a few years? We could lay off some firemen, teachers and police. We could always sell some bonds and go into debt and raise taxes to pay back the $4.5 million debt.
Thoughts?
Do not continue to build in a FEMA declared flood zone, yes we want smaller government , and this is a good start, now if we can get the beach owners to pay their own insurance, then we might start to get people to quit making stupid decisions about where they decide to build.
You teabaggers wanted smaller government, well, YOU’VE GOT IT!
So stop your whining.
Abe, I agree with you. I work downtown, where it floods (especially on Palafox St.)
When I see this beginning to happen, I go and move my vehicle from that area of Palafox St. so it doesn’t flood my vehicle. I may get wet in the process, but atleast my vehicle is saved. There is no excuse for all those Sheriff’s Dept. vehicles being flooded. That place is open 24 hours a day. Someone should have taken control of the situation and had those expensive vehicles moved. The ball was certainly dropped on us taxpayers.
REGARDING:
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency has turned down the state’s request to declare a disaster area due to the June 9-10 weekend rainfall event that flooded portions of the county.”
Sad but reasonable.
David for preparation
Abe I agree with your post 100%!! Well stated!! We had government push for FEMA cutbacks of spending so this is what we have. Do we want everyone to have a social safety net for disasters or not?
Do we want big government or not? We scream that we don’t want to “socialize” our government and we prefer to stand on our own two feet- “that’s the USA way”. Then, the first time adversity comes our way we start crying for Big Brother to come bail us out.
We have the option of buying (government subsidized) flood insurance if we live in a flood prone area. Maybe we should be forced to buy flood insurance if we live in a flood prone area or pay a tax if we don’t take that option to help cover the cost. Sound familiar.
We can’t have it both ways.
FEMA should be done away with.