The Thomson City Council voted Monday night to officially finish an application for inclusion in the National Flood Insurance Program, paving the way for its eligibility to receive flood aid through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The resolution came after the city found out last week that paperwork achieving the program status had been held up by the Department of Natural Resources in 2009. The city resolution portion of the application was missing and the DNR never forwarded the application to FEMA or told the city the application was incomplete.
Without inclusion in the program, the city wouldn't be eligible for flood aid after the June rainstorm and declaration last week that it was included in a federal disaster area eligible for aid.
"We passed it," Thomson council member Heather MacDonald said Tuesday of the 2009 action. "The DNR misplaced it."
"Our major concern is to let our citizens know that we took appropriate action in 2009 to enroll in the (flood insurance program)," MacDonald said. "Our application was not reviewed timely by the state."
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Apologies for the confusion about the eligibility came from the DNR, and FEMA has promised "they will expedite the process," MacDonald said.
Ceil Strauss, the DNR's floodplain manager, has been in contact with MacDonald since the problem arose late last week.
"We regret we did not discover this oversight earlier," Strauss wrote in an e-mail to the city.
Thomson's 2009 application was found in a DNR office in Two Harbors, Strauss said. Someone should have told the city at that time that the application was missing an official city resolution stating its intention to take part in the flood program.
FEMA's flood program marketer Judy Marvel assured the DNR and the city that the delay in officially being part of the flood program won't hold up aid claims for public infrastructure or possible individual claims.
A Saturday News Tribune story on the city's eligibility for aid raised MacDonald's ire. The story quoted David Schein of FEMA's insurance and outreach team saying the city chose to not join the flood program.
At the time, city clerk Ruth Jorgenson said the city definitely applied for the flood program.
MacDonald said to find out such news through the newspaper was disappointing not only because it was wrong but also that FEMA didn't contact city officials to let them know of its application status.
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"We did the right thing in 2009," MacDonald said after explaining the paper trail failure by the DNR. "We finally solved the problem."
Even if the city hadn't found out the snag through the DNR, it had 60 days to file for aid and would have been eligible.
MacDonald sent a letter to the News Tribune, writing that the news leaking out the past few days about aid ineligibility has caused more stress for the 160 residents of the city who have already been "brought low by flood damage."
"An article such as this seems to have the purpose of upsetting a community that has already lost everything," MacDonald wrote.
"Living in Thomson, we're afraid to go to the mailbox," MacDonald said Tuesday of reaction in the city to the claim that it was ineligible for aid.
She said Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon was invaluable in clearing up the aid question. "They were right on it," MacDonald said. "She deserves a lot of credit."
Last week's declaration of a federal disaster area for the region means that public infrastructure fixes could be paid for through federal and state aid. Individual aid remains up in the air.
FEMA teams will be visiting the region today to make assessments on private property damage. It will make a determination of whether individual home and business owners could get aid.
