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Kingston,Mi | It gets covered every news program on ABC 12 from Flint, 1 or 2 minutes every time. The mention the 3 or 4 lives lost and that 1 was a farmer going to do a stranded motorist rescue. Until it dries out and some on the ground assessment of the damage can be done so that repair priorities can be determined, airlifting people off of rooftops and arranging for emergency supplies for man and beast is about it.
Now without looking can you tell me what happened Sept 10 and 11 1986. How many minutes of coverage in your local news market. How many posts on the internet. Hint, we had a 500 year storm event, 17 inches of rain in 48 hours, it got wet. We lost a new set of terraces, lots of erosion control structures , about a 1000 square miles over a 5 or 6 county area under some amount of flooding just as crop harvest started. Had a few bridges closed but didn't lose any primary road bridges, lots of road damage and lots of soil moved and deposited where it wasn't supposed to be. The year before the watershed Flint is in received 10 inches in a several hour period. The secondary spillway on a dry dam (allows the creek to flow thru but impounds then releases large rain storms) was washed out because some one had panted corn in the spillway. The land under the dam and adjacent to it are owned by a 3 county drainage district. So someone's trespass endangered the lower watershed and its diked farmland. I know it doesn't compare to flooding on large multi-state rivers, but to the locals it is still important.
Spent every day for a month and a half validating damage claims for the 4 items that are covered under emergency repair. Repairing erosion control structures (drop inlets, terraces, waterways), repair of boundary fences if used to control livestock (had to have livestock on art least one side) removal of debris (sand bars or logjams) and stabilizing roads that so that they were safe to use.
Watched the county drain commissioner show ineligible erosion sites to the FEMA rep for weeks at a time while we were reconstruction the road side of the county drain. FEMA could work to repair vital infrastructure but regulations forbade them from working where there was no threat to life, ditch banks in a field.
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Extremely aggrivated with news outlets.........Flooding
