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Temporary disaster relief center provides one-stop shop

Eric Cravey
Posted 9/27/17

MIDDLEBURG – All Terrence McKeen, 30, could do when Hurricane Irma and an accompanying nor’easter swept through Clay County was watch the water rise from the south prong of Black Creek near his …

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Temporary disaster relief center provides one-stop shop


Posted

MIDDLEBURG – All Terrence McKeen, 30, could do when Hurricane Irma and an accompanying nor’easter swept through Clay County was watch the water rise from the south prong of Black Creek near his home.

“Saturday night[Sept. 10], it flooded the street, Sunday it flooded the house and by Monday, the water was all in the house,” McKeen said.

McKeen was one of about 100 Clay County residents who turned out Sept. 22 at the Middleburg Civic Center on Main Street where Clay County Emergency Management officials set up a temporary disaster relief center. Residents had the chance to speak with representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Clay County Building Department, the Clay County Health Department, Mosquito Control, the Clay SafetyNet Alliance and Builders Care, a nonprofit organization of homebuilders who donate their skills and supplies.

Although he had already filed with FEMA, McKeen was there inquire about rebuilding his two-bedroom block house on Forest Street. The home, while not fully submerged, had water on the roof, flooding McKeen described as the worst thing he’d ever witnessed in the 25 years he’d lived in the home.

“This is bad. This is the most devastating thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Being 30 years old, I’ve seen [flooding] in the yard, I’ve seen it on the street, but I’ve never seen it on the house and I’ve never seen it over the house. Four years ago, it got four feet inside the house, but that was the first time it ever got in the house, but that was only four feet. This year, it took the whole house out,” McKeen said.

John Ward, director of Clay County Emergency Management, said the Middleburg Civic Center was chosen because of its proximity to families such as McKeen who were flooded along Black Creek in the community’s historic district.

“We’ve had our FEMA teams that have been out in the different areas – the libraries, that type thing – and we’ve been getting a lot of questions into the call center about building permits, health department, well inspections, those types of things, so we thought we’d really come into this area, bring all the partner agencies in and just have that opportunity here and have discussions with the local agencies that can assist you,” Ward said.

Ward said there were approximately Clay County 1,300 homes that were “impacted” by the Irma-related flooding, homes that were within the 28.5-foot rise in water levels on Black Creek. Out of the 1,300, Ward said there were 450 homes that were fully-destroyed or received major damage that will require significant reconstruction. And while Keystone Heights and Clay Hill were not subject to flooding, numerous homes were damaged by fallen trees, which led to significant water damage with the wind and rain.

“We’re working with our volunteer agencies. I’m trying to check on housing stocks. We’ve got some folks that have donated homes, donated rental units. We’ve got churches that are willing that are offering to help house folks – that type thing,” Ward said.

According to Ward, the county’s call center continues to receive about “a couple hundred” calls a day, mainly about debris pickup. He said complacency – the mindset that believes Clay County will never get hit by a hurricane – played a role in having to rescue about 350 Clay County residents off rooftops in the height of flooding.

“We had Matthew, where we were a very close call. We’ve made a lot of protective actions – did the first-ever significant evacuation in Clay County and it didn’t end up causing us much impacts. So, people get complacent when they do that and then when we get something like this, it really causes issues,” Ward said.

Fred Dolan, a Washington, D.C.-based representative with FEMA, said the main aspect of disaster relief his agency is promoting is for homeowners to go ahead and file with their homeowner’s insurance company and gather all the data they have about their belongings. He said working with FEMA involves a lot of open communication.

“We want them to be advocates for themselves, so if there’s a change in their status, call back in and make that change to that case and always be on top of their case and their status. They get a letter from FEMA and if they disagree with they’re eligibility, call the 1-800 number. Sometimes, somebody might be missing a form or a piece of information and if you change that, it totally changes the outcome of their case,” Dolan said.

Dolan said out of the nine representatives on hand Sept. 22 in Middleburg were not all FEMA employees. “Some of the folks that we have on these teams are not actually FEMA employees, they’re from other components of the Department of Homeland Security and they volunteered their time and trained up to come help us in this process,” Dolan said.

Dolan said FEMA teams are also planning to go door-to-door in Clay County to ensure every homeowner whose property was damaged has the opportunity to file for relief.

“Folks who come around from FEMA will have badges, they’ll be readily identified by their clothing, so if somebody comes to your door saying they’re with FEMA ask for that ID, that you’d like them to show their ID so it’s not a scam or a fraud. We get a lot of that anytime in a disaster,” Dolan said.

While he awaits a final declaration from FEMA, McKeen said he will try to cling on to the memories he collected while living in his now-flooded home.

“Everything was upside down. My mom cried, I cried, my girlfriend cried, my older brother cried. It was the most devastating thing that we could ever see in our life and this was our livelihood here. This is where we grew up. This is where we enjoyed our life as kids. And we have memories here…and now it’s gone,” McKeen said.