FEMA money might insulate local taxpayers from brunt of flood recovery costs

South Carolina has racked up an estimated $275 million in expenses to fix the most pressing problems caused by last fall’s historic floods, but one of the largest pots of available federal disaster aid might insulate Columbia-area residents from footing the bill.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to pay about 75 percent – roughly $207 million – of that bill through its public assistance program, which reimburses local and state agencies for up-front costs incurred while responding to disasters.

Local officials say the reimbursements will help them avoid raising utility rates or property taxes to pay for recovery from the Oct. 4 deluge.

The program is expected to be especially helpful in paying for roughly $40 million in repairs to the Columbia Canal, which breached during the storm and is the largest single flood recovery project in South Carolina.

“That rock wall (on the canal) is not a permanent fix,” Columbia budget director Missy Caughman said. “It’s not like it’s $7 million and we can walk away. That’s $40 million that the city, i.e. our ratepayers, would have to pick up the tab for. Obviously, that would be very impactful on our ability to do other project, other things that we need to do for our system.”

Richland County and Lexington County officials also have said they do not expect to raise taxes to pay for flood recovery.

FEMA’s public assistance program is one of the largest sources of flood recovery money available to South Carolina communities, along with an estimated $36 million in FEMA grants for hazard mitigation projects – such as property buyouts – and the $157 million allocated for South Carolina flood recovery by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The program can help communities pay for storm debris or wreckage removal; restoration of parks and playgrounds; repair of roads, bridges, buildings, water and sewer systems and more.

Only work on public facilities or land is eligible. FEMA has a separate program to help individuals recover.

“The program is extremely important for any agency during a disaster,” state Emergency Mangement Division spokesman Derrec Becker said. “That assurance allows us to do the work that needs to be done when lives are in danger without worrying about the finances of it.”

Columbia, Richland County and Lexington County have taken advantage.

Columbia wants more than $64.1 million in flood-related costs covered through the public assistance program, according to a database prepared by the city’s disaster consultant.

Nearly $47.5 million of Columbia’s eligible emergency flood recovery costs were for repairs to water control facilities, including the canal.

Richland County’s estimated project costs amount to $4.1 million, a county spokeswoman said. Nearly $2.8 million of that was for repairs to roads and bridges.

The costs for the hard-hit county were relatively small, Becker said, because most of the damage in unincorporated Richland County occurred on private property, including dams.

Lexington County expects to rack up more than $2.9 million in flood-related costs eligible for FEMA reimbursement, a spokesman said. Most of that, almost $2.2 million, was for repairing the county’s washed-out roads and bridges.

Several state agencies also expect to receive FEMA reimbursements.

The state Department of Transporation expects $25 million in FEMA public assistance dollars in addition to another $63 million from other federal sources.

The state Emergency Management Division spent about $15.8 million in public assistance dollars, Becker said. Most of that includes:

▪  $6.8 million for helicopter support, swift-water rescue teams and damage assessments teams;

▪  $6.5 million for engineering services, bottled water, sandbags, rip rap stone and tarps;

▪  $158,000 for staff overtime pay.

“In the long term, it also helps us shoulder some of the costs,” Becker said of the state’s initial expenses. “It prevents any local agency that has limited resources and limited funds to look elsewhere for funding. One disaster could cost a small agency’s entire annual budget. This helps recoup that cost.”

Communities in 35 counties are eligible to apply for FEMA reimbursements.

“They had officers and employees that worked long hours,” Becker said. “We had swift-water rescue teams throughout the entire state. We had resources deployed from Columbia that went all the way to Charleston. Half the state was impacted by this disaster as the water moved downstream.”

Public assistance is separate from the individual assistance FEMA offered to private households. The public assistance money also trickles down much slower.

FEMA so far has approved just $45 million of the $275 million in public assistance reimbursements. More money could take months to come down the pipes, especially for expensive, complicated projects, EMD officials said.

“That’s just the nature of the process,” Becker said. “We’re trying to be as fast and as diligently as we can.”