Douglas County requests State of Emergency due to flooding

The Douglas County Board of Commissioners have requested a State of Emergency due to the cumulative series of flash floods that have taken place since July 20 in Douglas County. The cumulative series of floods has now exceeded the county’s resources, and the declaration will allow for help with repairing public infrastructure such as county maintained roads, culverts, and drainage.

The declaration may also allow the county to call in additional crews to help clear roads, debris removal and repair public infrastructure that continues to be damaged as repeated storms cause flash flooding. If approved at the state level, the County would be eligible to apply for financial assistance from the state disaster relief account. However, those funds are only available to help rebuild public infrastructure. Landscaping and yard damage are not eligible under FEMA programs or the State’s Disaster Relief Account (DRA). FEMA and the State Disaster Relief funds will generally not pay for debris removal from private land unless life safety were or is an issue.

The most recent flash flood occurred on August 11, 2014, and was primarily concentrated in the Stephanie Lane in Minden, Nevada. East Fork Fire personnel, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and Douglas County road personnel responded immediately and are currently making assessments and cleaning roadways. East Fork Fire District is out helping to deploy sandbags in the Johnson Lane Area. Sandbags are still available at the Johnson Lane Fire Station.

On Wednesday, August 13, 2014, the County will be working with the state damage assessment teams to determine the amount of damage to public infrastructure as well as attempting to determine private property damage following state and FEMA damage assessment criteria. The County hopes to have this report complete by sometime next week. This report will be filed with the state division of Emergency Management for review and will be forwarded to the governor in conjunction with the County’s application to seek financial assistance from the state Disaster Relief Account.

Currently, the Douglas County Emergency Reverse 911 system is down due to an unexpected failure of the system. The County has a tentative August 15, 2014, date for restoration of the system. The National Weather Service issues appropriate warnings from their radar system and the Emergency Broadcast System. If Douglas County needed to issue evacuation notices the Emergency Alert System would be activated. Tentative weather forecasts indicate that additional thunderstorms are forecasted for the next several days. Residents in flood prone areas are encouraged to monitor the daily forecasts.

If you think your well head has gone below the level of the water and contaminated your well site, please contact:

Nevada State Health Laboratories

1660 North Virginia Street

Reno, NV 89503

(775) 688-1335

Should any resident have issues with sewer contamination or septic system exposure, please contact the Douglas County Building Department, Valerie Nunes at (775) 782- 6222.

The debris sites at Johnson Lane Fire Station, will remain open.