Spokane County Could Get Flood Aid
Spokane County has taken a back seat to other flood-ravaged areas of Eastern Washington but suffered an estimated $1 million in damage, officials said Thursday.
That’s bad enough to qualify for federal disaster relief and piggyback on President Clinton’s recent aid declaration for Washington, Oregon and Idaho, officials said.
To be eligible, county commissioners declared a disaster at a special meeting Thursday.
“We have relatively low risk of flooding in terms of Spokane County, and there is low awareness that we may be eligible for these funds,” Sheriff John Goldman said.
The hardest-hit areas are two golf courses - the county’s Hangman Valley and the city’s The Creek at Qualchan. About a dozen homes along the Little Spokane River near Peone Creek also suffered water damage, Goldman said.
Also hammered were bridges, roads, a lagoon at Spangle and crops.
On Thursday, the county public works department set speed and weight restrictions on nearly 150 miles of crumbling roads from Deer Park to Cheney.
The freezing-and-thawing action has made the soil beneath these roads unstable, said county operations engineer Phil Barto.
Today, those restrictions will be added to heavily traveled Bigelow Gulch Road, which links the Valley and the North Side, he said.
Affected roads are posted with weight restrictions for trucks and 30 mph speed restrictions for all vehicles.
“It’s the worst I’ve seen in the last 10 years,” Barto said of road conditions. “And more problems are popping up every day.”
Among the shaky, well-traveled roads are Cedar, Staley, Bridges, Sherman, Short and Spotted roads all near Deer Park; Wood, Charles and Long Lake roads west of Spokane; Ben Burr Road near Tower Mountain; Depot Springs Road south of Cheney; and Watt Road east of Highway 195.
Deputies vow to write tickets for at least $332 for violations, Sheriff’s Lt. David Wiyrick said.
The county should learn within a week whether its application is accepted for federal cash, said Carol Morrisen, resources coordinator for the county department of emergency services.
If so, the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay 75 percent of city or county property damages if the governments could match the remaining quarter, she said. Businesses could apply for low-interest Small Business Administration loans.
The quick melt is washing out the county’s annual road budget of only $13 million, Barto said.
“When we make a decision to repair one thing, we’re also making a decision to not do something else,” he said. “High speeds tend to increase the amount of damage. The speed limits are being enforced.”
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