Flooded landowners wait for funds

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/11/2014 (4202 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 1,000 provincial disaster financial assistance claims remain open from historic floods this past summer, and nearly 300 still open dating back to 2011.

Jody and Kelly Gottfried live near Pierson and have been waiting five months for the Manitoba Emergency Measures Organization to tell them whether their flood-demolished home should be fixed or if they should write it off and move on.

The couple have been renting a house in Pierson, stuck in bureaucratic limbo, which has kept them from even getting power to their home since the summer.

They said the groundwater is still so high that it was running in through the basement walls up until recently. Now, as frigid temperatures descend on the Prairies, they say there’s about four inches of ice on top of eight inches of water and say if they don’t get something done, the basement may crack and collapse.

According to the province, a total of 1,084 private claims are open from the June floods brought on by heavy rainfall — that figure includes homes, farms, businesses and non-profit organizations.

A total of 297 private DFA claims remain from the 2011 flood.

The quotes for repair to the Gottfried home have ranged from $175,000 to $230,000, which doesn’t include appliances.

But Jody said it’s not enough to even start. “You have to start everything at once,” he said.

At its highest level, the water reached the top of a sofa on the ground floor of the home.

It was a week into the worst of the flooding before Manitoba Hydro shut off power to their home.

The couple has received $38,000 so far and hope more will be coming, since EMO hasn’t said otherwise.

“They haven’t done anything else since,” Jody said. “They’re still going through the quotes and assessments, they haven’t done anything.”

In an emailed statement to the Sun, a government spokesperson said Manitoba EMO is working with the Pierson couple to “maximize the amount of disaster financial assistance available, based on the DFA program eligibility guidelines.

“The Government of Manitoba acknowledges the frustration felt by some citizens in Southwest Manitoba who experienced the brunt of the unprecedented late June/early July rains.”

Jody said he’s holding out for the province to provide the pre-flood assessed value of the home — $110,000.

On top of devastation to the home, Jody said they had thousands of dollars worth of building materials in his garage, intended for a remodelling Jody was planning to start last summer.

“We have been paying the mortgage, taxes and even close to $200 a month for insurance for a house that is not livable, plus paying $900 a month rent for a house so we have a roof over our heads.”

The province said each DFA claim is unique and the time to provide assistance and finalize the claim depends on the level of damage, the applicant’s access to technical experts and contractors to complete restoration and the provision of necessary documentation and invoices to Manitoba EMO to complete the evaluation and claim process.

On July 11 the province announced a DFA program to assist Manitobans impacted by flooding in 2014.

How much the province has spent so far on DFA wasn’t immediately available, but the total bill for the 2011 flood was about $1.25 billion, which included individual DFA claims and infrastructure repairs.

This year’s DFA claims had already risen to an estimated $100 million in July, immediately following the flood.

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