Jennifer Bercier/PCT A road flooded along a mobile home community in Rugby after a storm hit the area on Sunday, Aug. 23.

The Rugby City Council is asking residents impacted by flooding from the overnight rain storm on Aug. 23-24 to complete an assessment form that will assist the city in determining damage and needs.

The council held a special meeting Thursday, Aug. 27, to discuss suspending landfill fees to impacted residents and distributing damage assessment forms.

The council agreed to make damage assessment questionnaires available electronically and in print at the city office. The city also will be mailing information to residents to let them know where to find questionnaires and the importance of filling them out.

Pierce County Emergency Manager Kelsey Siegler stressed the need for data from damage assessments to move forward with disaster response.

“Our churches and friends and neighbors have stepped up and they have helped immensely, but it is hindering the data collection that we need in order to have an accurate needs assessment and a damage assessment,” Siegler told the council. “People are not reporting. They’re tearing out their own carpet and they’re not reporting it. The church groups are going out helping people but they’re not reporting it.”

She said she has spoken with volunteer organizations and churches to commend them for their work but also to ask them to encourage people to report their damages. She said her office has no guidance for groups that call with offers to help because it doesn’t know what the needs are. It is difficult to know who is falling through the cracks or who may still have unmet needs, she said.

Legal Services of North Dakota has offered free services to residents in coverage disputes with insurers, cleaning companies are offering free services and pantries are offering drop-off meal kits and supplies. But her office is reluctant to request the resources because it doesn’t know who, if anyone, needs them, Siegler said.

She also suggested, going forward, that churches be included in developing disaster emergency plans.

“One of the things I realized is we do need to bring them more into the planning of these things, so that they do know that there are plans and that they can be part of it,” Siegler said.

Regarding the damage assessment data collection, Siegler suggested it be run through the city. People who aren’t able to go online or pick up a printed questionnaire can call the city to provide their information.

The damage assessment questionnaire will ask for an estimate of damages. People are encouraged to fill out the questionnaire even if they don’t have all the information yet because they can return later to provide that information.

Some loan programs of the Small Business Administration and Bank of North Dakota require information on the percentage of the property damage. One loan program requires at least 20 homes to be affected and at least 40% damaged. Having the full data would help determine eligibility for these types of programs, Siegler said.

She also suggested tracking and documenting time spent by Public Works and the fire department and the number of hours of pumping water.

Getting a federal emergency declaration to obtain assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency appears unlikely, though, because of the eligibility criteria, she said.

“The sad part about this is, to be considered significant damage, you have to have 18 inches of water on a living space. Oftentimes when you’re tearing out carpet or drywall or wall covering or flooring, that’s not really considered significant damage,” Siegler said.

That doesn’t mean the damage that occurred to residents wasn’t devastating, she said. However, even with collapsed basement walls that displaced some residents, the flooding doesn’t meet the FEMA threshold, she said.

“That doesn’t mean that the damage reports are not helpful,” she said. “If we were to be seeking a (mitigation) project, those damages would count. We could tally up all the damages and count those toward a mitigation project.”

Sieger said she has spoken with the county’s hazard mitigation plan consultant about potentially applying for a grant for a FEMA mitigation project to prevent infrastructure damage in future incidents.

The council voted to cover landfill fees from Aug. 27 through Sept. 4 for residents who bring flood-damaged materials for disposal. Circle Sanitation will have the landfill open from 1-5 p.m. through Sept. 4.

The council decided against requiring residents to bring a water bill to verify eligibility, desiring make the process as easy as possible on residents while trusting the community to self-police. This also will make it easier for those assisting people with cleanup to make disposals.

Auditor Jennifer Stewart said the fees are reported to be $10 for a pickup load and $45-$55 for a trailer.

Council member Jon Nelson raised the issue of people who already have disposed of flood waste at the landfill.

“There’s been load after load from homes that have been most affected. I would like to see an assessment of people that have taken loads out there, just to see how much that cost would be and maybe we could discuss that at a later date,” he said.

Council member Neil Lotvedt agreed that these residents shouldn’t be cut off from assistance.

“There’s got to be some way that we can reimburse them,” he said.

The council put off that discussion for now but approved giving the mayor temporary authority to make decisions on a case-by-case basis when questions arise regarding landfill fees. The council capped the mayor’s spending authority at $1,000 after the city attorney recommended parameters.

There also was brief discussion on starting up the incident command post spelled out in the county emergency operations plan, and having council members associated with the command post work with city staff, including the handling of flood recovery donations. A council vote is required to allocate general donations, but recommendations could be made to donors interested in earmarking their contributions.