Gov office: Kenosha County doesn’t meet standard for FEMA flood relief; SBA loans sought

Kenosha, Racine and Walworth counties would not meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency threshold for relief from that agency for July’s flooding, the office of Gov. Scott Walker announced Tuesday.

However, the governor has initiated procedures to be able to obtain Small Business Administration loans for those counties, a program Walker’s office says the counties would qualify for.

From the new release:

A preliminary damage assessment conducted by the SBA, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Wisconsin Emergency Management (WEM) and emergency management directors from the affected counties found the State of Wisconsin would not meet the threshold for FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program. However, the initial assessment indicated the State of Wisconsin would be eligible for SBA assistance.

Hundreds of Kenosha County homes and businesses suffered damage from record flooding in the wake of heavy rains the week of July 9.

Walker said (in the release):

The July floods caused damage to many homes and businesses in southeast Wisconsin and that’s why we’re reaching out to SBA for assistance. We’re going to do all we can to help the families and business owners who were affected, and I thank everyone who was involved in the response and recovery efforts.”

Here is the whole news release from the governor’s office.

0 Shares

7 Comments

  1. The photo op was so long ago! says:

    FEMA and the other emergency groups evaluating this THRESHOLD have always leaned towards infrastructure not the homes of common people.
    The Feds and the State fail miserably in this regard.

    Mortgages must still be paid on buildings that are just skeletons of what they once were. What can be done about that? How fast must insurance companies respond? What does the state say on that? Re rebuilding, again, there should be an emergency QUICK PROCESS to accomplish building inspections during the rebuild… as in reducing the amount of time the village has to arrive at the building to do the inspection. Each day they get to respond, adds that many more days on to the homeowners heartache. No, I am not saying that the inspection itself should be quick.. It should be thorough, but an inspector should not have 3 days to respond. Maybe the inspector/s should have an office in the old Silver Lake Hall to reduce drive time (RME) …. Ditto for building fires. Maybe there should be a cut in the costs of a permit if its cause is flooding or fire? Ditto with any fees to the resident on sewer problems. Every penny can help…
    Elections are coming. Push the state to do more for the citizen and not only infrastructure. Push the ones running to act, not to photo op.

  2. Shawn bunch says:

    Meanwhile me and my family are homeless living in a popup camper by a swamp. Awesome…….

  3. Good idea. says:

    Streamlining the permit process for homes of natural disasters is a great idea.

    I think this might be something that Samantha Kerkman could take up. She is involved in money with the audit committees that she’s on. This would elevate her stature across the state and endear her to her constituents if she was able to get this thing done.

    Again great idea.

  4. Vote says:

    Vote republican and you will be saved. Not

  5. Vote? says:

    Just what the heck does that comment mean to this story?

    Did they bring the rain? Or deny the money?

    Those rules were/are there long before trump or walker.

    Please elaborate.

  6. permit process says:

    Permit Process is local. Start with the President and Chairmen of the areas affected. Kerkman is State. She could work on the State Emergency issues where what happened to us didn’t count for much except for roads and bridges and culverts. Local should be looking at raising the roadways that were flooded and Kerkman can push for the adjustment in Hwy 50 that separated people from help. It’s been there for a long while. There is absolutely no reason that a State Highway should flood with rains. Kreuser should be making a stink about Hwy 50, but alas, it isn’t easterly, it is westerly and doesn’t have a ‘park’ attached to its name or a bike trail next to it. Oh, that would be the way! Add a bike trail next to it and then it will get fixed! Don’t forget who was in the trenches with you when you cleaned the river from your houses at election time – and who was there for a photo op!

  7. Go into Salem town hall says:

    If you going to Salem town hall and ask any kind of a technical question about a building code and the answer you will get is “we follow state code”.

    One of the largest town/villages in the state has one building inspector that for the most part is part time and does not have all the certifications necessary for all the inspections to come across his desk.

    So the comment about Samantha Kerkman getting the state to pass a statue allowing permit expediency in times of natural disasters or for that matter having a house burn down goes to the thinking that a state statue would be necessary to induce local officials to expedite doing their job. Otherwise all you’re going to hear locally is “we’ll do the best we can”.

    And the best they can is far from the best.

  • Follow us on

  • Archives