FEMA denies Lake Delhi funding appeal

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday reiterated its denial of federal funding to help Lake Delhi residents recover from flood damage in 2008 and 2010.

The FEMA regional office denial was expected and will be appealed to FEMA's national office, said James “Buzz” Graham, a trustee of the Combined Lake Delhi Recreation and Water Quality District, which in October had appealed FEMA's original denial of benefits.

FEMA administrators last August had rightfully denied the Lake Delhi group's request for assistance , Beth Freeman, FEMA's regional administrator in Kansas City, Mo., said Thursday in a letter to Iowa officials.

Freeman agreed that the Lake Delhi Recreation Association, the owner of the Maquoketa River dam that failed on July 24, is not eligible for federal aid because it is a private organization that does not provide any essential government service to the general public.

Graham said the FEMA funding component is “very critical” to the effort to rebuild the dam and restore the lake.

Whether that can be accomplished without FEMA funding, he said, depends upon yet to be undertaken engineering studies that will help to determine the cost of the effort.

If the state allows the dam to be rebuilt to “moderate risk” standards , the cost, including a hydroelectric component, could be as little as $10 million. If the state insists that the dam be rebuilt to “high risk” standards, the $24 million estimated cost may well be out of reach of funding provided by the state, Delaware County and Lake Delhi residents.

Jim Willey, who resigned as president of the Lake Delhi Recreation Association last week after its board stripped him of authority to speak for the organization, said Thurday that FEMA funding is an essential component of the rebuilding effort.

“In all honesty, in my opinion, $24 million for a high-hazard dam would be very difficult to accomplish without FEMA involvement,” Willey said.

Though Lake Delhi leaders regret time lost during the appeal, they remain optimistic that FEMA's national office will reverse the regional office decision, Graham said

Lake Delhi will file its appeal within 60 days and then  federal officials will have 90 days to respond, Graham said.

When FEMA denied Lake Delhi's application for assistance in August, it also said it erred in obligating nearly $7.8 million in 2008 to the Combined Lake Delhi Recreation and Water Quality District and that Lake Delhi must reimburse FEMA for nearly $3.6 million that it had disbursed for the 2008 disaster.

The FEMA regional office on Thursday also denied a similar appeal from the Lakewood Benefited Recreational Lake District in Warren County .

FEMA had initially approved Lakewood's request for funding to aid recovery from flood damage in 2008 and had obligated $9.2 million to the district and its residents. For reasons similar to those cited in the Lake Delhi ruling, FEMA reversed its decision in August and sustained that reversal Thursday.

“It is regrettable that FEMA has denied the appeals for these two districts,” said J. Derek Hill, administrator of the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division. “We will assist the districts in their efforts as they now appeal the decision to FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C.”