Fargo buyouts top disaster list in North Dakota

By DAVE KOLPACK

FARGO, N.D.

The slough that passes through the town of Crary in northeast North Dakota has been ravaging the home of Shane and Lauri Parrish for five years.

Their struggles may be over.

Congress this week passed a supplemental appropriations bill that includes more than $5 billion to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., said he expects North Dakota to receive up to $80 million, mostly for weather-related disasters over the last two years.

The news couldn't have come soon enough for the Parrish family. Their home has become nearly uninhabitable because of mold and they're hoping to sign paperwork to buy a house in nearby Lakota within a week.

"The slough has continued to rise and rise and there's no place for the water to go," Shane Parrish said. "It has been horrible."

Shane and Lauri have lived for 12 years in the ranch-style home, where they raised four daughters. Water has been seeping into the basement since about 2005. The last two years they've had to sandbag to save the house.

"Last week I got home and the sewer system was backing up again," Shane said. "It has just been one continuous nightmare."

Preliminary figures from the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services show that more than 130 structures are being considered to receive more than $13 million from FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The Parrish family is eligible to receive more than $50,000 in federal funding for the $67,000 home.

"I don't want to give the impression that the checks are going to flow immediately, but this is very good news," Pomeroy said. "The delay never should have happened. The last thing you need when recovering from a disaster is wondering whether FEMA is going to have the money to pay what they owe."

The president requested the emergency funding last February and the House and Senate went back and forth on different versions of the bill.

"This really hasn't been FEMA's fault," said Cecily Fong, state Emergency Services public information officer. "This bill has been bogged down by other issues. FEMA's hands have been tied, just as our hands have been tied. It's really frustrating."

Lonnie Hoffer, Emergency Services disaster recovery chief, said the first priority for funding will be buyouts in Cass County, where more than 40 structures are on the list. Most of those residents were affected by the record-setting Red River flood in 2009.

Second on the list, Hoffer said, is about $30 million that was spent to fix power line damage suffered by the Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative, Inc., during storms in January and April. The co-op, which covers customers in the southwestern counties of Morton, Grant and Sioux, was forced to take out a loan to cover the repair, said Clayton Hoffman, alliance co-manager.

"It's going to be a great help to us," Hoffman said. "This was a major catastrophe."

Pomeroy, a member of Congress since 1992, said North Dakota has been forced to ask for federal disaster assistance in most years he's been in federal office.

"It's kind of an inescapable reality about life on the Northern Plains," Pomeroy said. "We have dramatic weather. We have variable precipitation. We will inevitably have disasters."