Flooding goes on; 35 counties declared U.S. disaster areas
By Kenneth Heard , Mike Linn
This article was published March 28, 2008 at 6:00 a.m.
Flood photos
See photos from the flooding at Focus.
The White River continued to push into flood-prone communities in Monroe County on Thursday, a day after President Bush declared nearly half of the state a federal disaster area.
The declaration late Wednesday for 35 counties opens the way for federal reimbursements for emergency measures, including funding for generators, emergency roofing and shoring up unsafe structures, said Dan Martinez, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Little Rock.
The decision came more than a week after rainfall in Missouri and northeast Arkansas raised water levels in Arkansas' rivers, creating a domino effect of flooding for communities downstream.
The federal declaration doesn't include funding to repair damaged public infrastructure or residents' water-logged homes, Martinez said.
Gov. Mike Beebe will request infrastructure and housing repair funding after teams with FEMA and the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management complete preliminary flood-damage assessments in affected counties, spokesman Grant Tennille said.
For more information see today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Subscribers can read the story here on ArkansasOnline.
