New Richland flood damage assessment begins this week before seeking Trump administration aid
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The small southern Minnesota town of New Richland continues to recover from the severe flooding that damaged numerous homes and displaced residents more than a week ago.
Teams from state agencies along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration plan to visit every home in the area later this week to review flood damage.
During a news conference in New Richland on Monday, Allison Farole, director of Minnesota’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management division, said that they will support area residents as recovery continues.
“This is again an initial step to determine if we, as a state, are at a point where we can then request the president of the United States for a major disaster declaration for what we call individual assistance.”
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About 75 to 80 percent of homes in New Richland have been affected by flooding, said John Cunningham, assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Homeland Security and Emergency Management is collaborating with New Richland to establish a disaster center at the city’s fire department. Residents can meet with representatives from government agencies and nonprofits to help those affected by flooding.
“We recognize just how dangerous flood water can be, not only in that initial response, but in the devastation that it causes, and the water that is left behind,” Cunningham said. “And the damage that is caused to your businesses, to your homes and to your community.”
Hope for solutions
Residents are still trying to clean up their properties and figure out where to go from here. Rick Schultz, 57, lives 3 miles west of New Richland. His corn and soybean farm received about 9 inches of rain, and his home and crops were damaged. He’s lived in the area his entire life, so he knows how persistent flooding can be.
“We need to find a solution, and we need to do it rapidly so that we don’t lose residents, that we don’t lose businesses and that we can attract and grow this community,” Schultz said. “The beauty of it is, we’re a wonderful community, helpful to each other and that’s what we should be focusing on.”
New Richland sits at the bottom of a bowl surrounded by rolling hills. It’s where a few county ditches converge, making the city flood prone. To address flood mitigation would cost about 10 times more than the city’s annual operating budget.
But Schultz said in spite of a smaller tax base that makes it harder for New Richland to shoulder the brunt of a major flood mitigation project, he’s optimistic that the city’s partnerships with county, state and federal agencies will help pay for recovery.
“As frustrating as it is that it hit, there has been work in that direction,” Schultz said. “And so I'm optimistic that they can bring that to a solution and hopefully move that rapidly, so that we can avoid this situation in the future.”
