Floods caused unseen damage, Oklahoma officials say

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Aug 31, 2007 by Janice Francis-Smith

Though officials are working to assess the amount of damage caused by the storms that have repeatedly flooded parts of Oklahoma over the last few months, the true cost of the storms won't be known for years to come, transportation officials told members of the state Legislature on Thursday. The flood water is eroding the very structure of the roads, shortening their life span.

And the lackluster response exhibited by federal emergency response officials and some insurance companies indicates the state of Oklahoma will have to shoulder the cost of repairing that damage.

"There's only two things that damage roads: wheel load and water," said Oklahoma Department of Transportation Director Gary Ridley.

Ridley spoke at the House General Government Subcommittee on Transportation's second meeting to discuss the condition of Oklahoma's transportation infrastructure.

Usually, ODOT designs roads to last about 20 years, but the roads subjected to flood waters "will not make it there," Ridley said. The flood water is eroding the road bed, causing problems that cannot yet be seen by the naked eye and which are difficult to quantify.

"These problems will not be manifested for another two or three years," said Ridley.

It took a week and a day for Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to show up after the flooding, said Richard Reynolds, city manager of Kingfisher. And once FEMA officials did show up, they brought mostly disappointment.

"FEMA is not our salvation," said Reynolds. "We'd show them sink holes in the road with water standing in them, and they'd say that was there before. We had a cave-off near a maintenance building, but unless the wall was cracked we couldn't get anything - we'd have to wait until it destroys something. We clear off three or four inches of mud and they'd say that's prior damage. Well maybe it is prior, but it was caused by the water."

This is the third time in a year Kingfisher has experienced flooding. The 5 inches to 11 inches of rain Tropical Storm Erin dumped on Kingfisher about two weeks ago, causing the Cimarron River and its tributaries to overflow, is just the latest storm to damage the city's roads.

"You can't see all the damage today, but as we travel on these roads you'll see more damage on a daily basis," Reynolds said.

Businesses and homeowners have also had some trouble with their insurance companies. One business in particular, grill manufacturer Kingfisher Kookers, purchased insurance with the understanding that large pieces of equipment bolted to the floor and permanently attached to the building would be covered as part of the building itself, though now the business is being told their equipment should have been covered as contents.

Kingfisher officials have been trying for the past five or six years to buy out the property owners in low-lying areas, and 30 to 40 families have relocated due to that effort.

The city is also working with the Army Corp of Engineers on a series of about 17 flood control lakes - a project which has been discussed since the late 1980s but which now seems to have the momentum to come to fruition, he said.

Kingfisher leaders have scheduled a meeting Sept. 6 with members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation, as well as state legislators, about the project.