We discussed briefly, on Friday, a conversation between the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners and representatives of the Department of Homeland Security, about the assessment of damage from the October 11 and 14 flood events in downtown Pagosa and elsewhere.
Some of the damage was to private homes. Other damage was to government infrastructure, such as roads and riverfront parks.
The representatives from Homeland Security were Riley Frazee and Travis Howell. Mr. Frazee did almost all the talking on behalf of his team.
He mentioned the CrisisTrack software used by Homeland Security, and something called the “Survivor Portal” where members of the public can submit damage reports.
“We’ve activated Survivor Portal. That’s a place where citizens can register for government aid. We don’t have government aid right now, because we don’t have individual assistance.
“The other software we’re using is CrisisCleanup, for voluntary organizations active in disasters can register, and then citizens can register as well, in the affected counties.
“Citizens can say, ‘I need my yard cleaned up’, and voluntary organizations can go help those folks clean up their yard. It’s interesting — your community, it seems, is very resilient. I come from a rural community as well, where people don’t necessarily rely on government to do things for us. Which is a good thing. But it’s also a bad thing, because we don’t folks registering through the software, so it doesn’t look like we have a lot of damage and a lot of stuff going on here.
“We had two people register. One was in Pagosa and one was in Arboles…”
I did a brief search of various government websites this morning, Monday October 27, and was unable to find and link to anything called a “Survivor Portal”.
I was able to find the link to CrisisCleanup… here… but it appears that the hotline for registering for help closed on October 24. So you might be out of luck if you’re just now hearing about this registration system.
Mr. Frazee:
“So we had two storm systems. Tropical storm Priscilla and tropical storm Raymond. Those are two different storm systems. So we should really have $12 million of damage on each one of those storms…”
$12 million is the minimum amount of damage to qualify for certain federal disaster funds. Less than $12 million and the community does not qualify.
“We’ve had success — and other states have had success — in asking FEMA to combine events, because they were so close together, and consider them one event. So if we do ask for FEMA assistance, that’s what we will be doing. We’ll probably need some letters and stuff like that to support that claim. I think it’s of note that it was the Piedra River that the highest flood record occurred. And the San Juan River was the third and fourth highest flood that you’ve ever had. So two back-to-back events happened in your community, and that’s really unheard of.
“I think we have a good case to move forward, to combine those incidents.
“The Army Corps of Engineers was out here yesterday and toured San Juan River Village, and they’re going to be coming up with some protective action measures that they can do out there to protect some of the homes where the river bank has eroded right up next to the house.”
Sheriff Mike Le Roux noted that the next potential for damage at San Juan River Village would likely be during spring runoff in May.
“If we get a big melt year, during that peak in mid-May, there’s a potential for high water. Depending on what we get. So that’s what the Army Corps was looking at, was temporary flood mitigation. And the permitting is happening, and they basically said, ‘Don’t wait for the permit; start mitigating now. Record everything that you put in and we’ll permit retrospectively.’
“So they’re not inhibiting the forward movement.
The Sheriff stated that the damaged sewer system at San Juan River Village “is able to be fixed pretty quickly, so there’s a temporary solution in place for that. But there’s issues with the pumps burning up. One is at its limit, but they’re looking at getting equipment into service there.”
Commissioner Veronica Medina praised the Assessor’s Office for quickly documenting the damage from San Juan River Village all the way down to Arboles following the first storm.
“[Assessor Johanna Tully-Elliot] had her whole team out there on Sunday, and they documented the damage all the way down County Road 500. So that’s a huge shout-out for them, that they did that. Everyone knew what their job was, and they went out and spoke to the community.
“And then they went out and reassessed everything after the second storm. And they documented that damage as well, which I think is really important.
“We need to document each storm, so we can prove what happened from each storm.”
Mr, Frazee noted that the County had provided a bus, so that state and federal officials would be able to tour the damaged areas on October 22.
“We have 30 days from the event to make the request to the President. So 30 days from Wednesday after the storm. It’s important that we move fast and get that data, because it’s going to take time to collect your data, La Plata County data, Rio Grande, Hinsdale, Mineral County data. Whatever counties we can get in on that disaster deck…”
Government expenses as well as expenses from LPEA, churches and nonprofits can be included in the damage total. Private property damage is not allowed to be included.