A Lesson Learned - A Little Too Late
Jack Buell has found religion in the floodwaters of the St. Joe River.
The veteran commissioner and others in anti-government Benewah County, Idaho, have learned that Big Brother isn’t always the bad guy. Sometimes, there’s a good reason to follow regulations, such as those governing flood plains, even when constituents don’t want you to do so.
A day of reckoning came this month for Benewah County when the river breached two dikes and submerged the St. Maries area. Said a wiser Buell afterward: “We just misjudged. … We’re going to be a heck of a lot smarter than we were before.”
Indeed, the chances are good that Benewah County will be better-prepared next time the river rages. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has discovered that areas flooded in Washington six years ago suffered far less damage than expected this year. People and communities learned from loss and trauma and took steps not to be victimized again.
Rather than stick their heads in the mud, susceptible Inland Northwest communities can learn from Benewah County’s ordeal, too.
Buell and his fellow commissioners exposed their area to greater harm by loosely translating their own flood plain ordinance, which is required of communities that want to participate in the National Flood Insurance Program. The commissioners wanted to be nice guys.
They permitted residents, many of whom work in the depressed timber industry and couldn’t afford land on higher ground, to build along dikes and on the flood plain. Mobile home owners were allowed to live in the flood plain if they left the wheels and “tongues” on their homes so they could be pulled out on two hours’ notice. Few people, however, pulled out despite more than 20 hours of warning in this month’s flooding.
No one expected a 100-year flood. No one ever does.
Even before this year’s flood, Benewah County was in danger of being placed on probation by FEMA for permitting illegal construction on flood plains. Next month, it will become the first Northwest county on probation. If problems aren’t corrected within a year, the county will be dropped from the FEMA-run flood insurance program. Then, residents wouldn’t be able to buy flood insurance and could have to recover from the next flood with little, if any, help.
The town of Rathdrum, Idaho, also is flirting with probationary status for responding slowly to FEMA about possible violations.
Rathdrum escaped serious flooding this time - as did other communities in the Inland Northwest. But there’s no guarantee that its luck will continue.
Just ask Jack Buell.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board