Thousands of people across north-central
North Dakota are facing a bleak financial future because of the Mouse River Flood of 2011.
Jim Olson has information about how other disaster have been dealt with - and how others in this flood are being treated in today's edition of "This Flooded House".
Many victims of the 2011 Mouse River Flood are having to recover largely on their own
For people who suffered losses in excess of the $30,200 maximum payout from
FEMA, the finances are daunting
(Florence Anderson,
Minot Resident) "$30,000 won't do it." (What kind of damage did you have?) "Way over the max. I came from
Hawaii, sold my house there and put everything I had in here and I don't know how I'm going to do it." Many people are facing taking on another loan on their home - on top of their existing mortgage
But what's happened elsewhere where major disasters have struck? We told you Friday about the situation following Hurricane Katrina
Congress approved nearly 17 billion dollars in block grants to Gulf Coast states through the Department of Housing and Urban Development
In the case of Louisiana, the money was distributed through a program called "The Road Home" that carried a maximum per-household grant of $150,000
To date, 128,645 households have been approved for funding totaling 8.82 billion dollars, an average of $68,500
In asking this question, we've been told that budget cuts make such a response unlikely in Minot's case
Which is why we've checked the HUD budget from 2006 - when Katrina money was passed - compared with 2011
That budget was 28 billion in 2006 and climbed to 43 billion in 2010. A jump of over 50% in four years. President Obama suggested a cut to 41.6 billion for this year, but no federal budget has been passed, so it's unclear how much will be spent this year
But, let's look at another disaster - the devastating
Tornado in Joplin,
Missouri in May of this year
Joplin is a city of about 50,000 people in southwest Missouri
Tragically, 138 people were killed by the twister, something that can't be measured in dollars and cents
For our purposes, we will look only at the property damage in the storm
State Farm Insurance estimated the tornado damaged or destroyed two thousand buildings
The difference between a tornado and a flood is that tornadoes are covered by standard homeowners insurance, whereas floods are not
And the latest estimate from insurance industry officials is that insurance payouts in Joplin will hit two billion dollars
In Minot, only about 10% of the 4,100 homes damaged or destroyed had flood insurance, since it was not recommended after the flood control measures of the 1990s were finished
That means the people of Minot will have to come up with - through loans or other means - the hundreds of million of dollars needed to rebuild their property, beyond the $30,200 FEMA grant limit
And one final note, to our north in
Manitoba, residents with damage from this year's flood qualify for a Canadian government grant of up to $240,000 per household for rebuilding
By the way, the woman in Jim's story - Florence Anderson - could really use some help in gutting and cleaning up her home.
