Biden to tour flood-ravaged Georgia Friday

By Aaron Gould Sheinin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Vice President Joe Biden will tour storm-ravaged parts of North Georgia on Friday as residents in five flooded counties begin to seek federal help for cleanup and recovery.

Biden, joined by FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, will brief state and local leaders on federal assistance and will meet with families suffering the storms’ aftermath. His visit comes a day after President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in Carroll, Cherokee, Cobb, Douglas and Paulding counties.

The declaration clears the way for residents and businesses in those counties to seek a wide range of assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, including grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs.

And Fugate had a message late Thursday for those affected by the storm: Get on the phone or on the computer and apply now.

“This is moving pretty fast,” Fugate said on a conference call with reporters, although he could not say how long it would take before those who apply will receive checks.

Residents and business owners in other counties not on the initial list should also go ahead and apply for assistance, Fugate said, as FEMA is likely to add more counties to the disaster list in the coming days, perhaps as soon as today. Perdue also had declared a state of emergency for Catoosa, Chattooga, Clayton, Crawford, DeKalb, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Newton, Rockdale, Stephens and Walker counties.

“Our goal is to get them turned on as quickly as we can get the information in,” he said.

The federal aid, however, does not yet extend to state- or county-owned infrastructure, such as roads and bridges. Help for those losses could come later.

In all, the flooding across the region was a record-setting calamity, the U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday, noting that its crews measured the greatest flow ever recorded on Sweetwater Creek near Austell. The USGS said this event was a 500-year flood.

The five counties included in Obama’s declaration suffered some of the more devastating losses from the floods that killed nine people and caused an estimated $250 million in damage.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, however, on Tuesday had asked the White House to declare an emergency in 17 Georgia counties. Perdue communications director Bert Brantley said the process is being followed, and damage assessment teams had to visit large swaths of the metro Atlanta region. It is not unusual to take this long, Brantley said.

“We have a great deal of work to do, and I appreciate President Obama’s approval of the disaster declaration”, Perdue, who is in Panama on an economic development trip, said in a statement.

In Gwinnett County, where entire subdivisions were cut off by floodwaters and where one person died, local officials are continuing to assess damage, county spokesman Joe Sorensen said.

“FEMA has been on the ground [in Georgia] today, but not in Gwinnett,” Sorensen said Thursday. “They are going to be here tomorrow. Which is good, because we have a lot more of our information coming this afternoon. We’ll be able to brief them much more thoroughly.”

Earlier Thursday, before the president’s declaration, Cobb County Commission Chairman Sam Olens said the region was growing impatient.

“It’s fair to say that we’re very frustrated. The storm started Sunday, with the real wrath Monday, and we frankly were thinking the presidential order would be signed Tuesday,” he said.

Also Thursday, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin questioned the official damage estimate provided by state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine. Franklin said she told Obama officials that damage will reach $1 billion, four times Oxendine’s estimate. Repairing the R.M. Clayton sewage treatment plant on the Chattahoochee River could cost $100 million or more, she said.

By Thursday, other Atlanta officials said they had restored some functionality to the Clayton plant, which was flooded and began dumping millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the river.

City officials said the plant was at 70 percent effectiveness, although it could be weeks before it returns to full working order.

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies said reports of burglaries to abandoned homes and businesses have been minimal or nonexistent.

How to get help

If you live or own a business in Carroll, Cherokee, Cobb, Douglas or Paulding counties, you could be eligible for federal assistance in the wake of this week’s storms.

Assistance for individuals and families can include:

» Rental payments for temporary housing.

» Grants for home repairs and replacement of essential household items not covered by insurance.

» Grants to replace personal property and meet medical and transportation needs.

» Unemployment payments for those who temporarily lost jobs due to the flood.

» Low-interest loans to cover losses not compensated by insurance.

» Loans of up to $2 million for small businesses and nonprofits that suffered cash flow problems due to the disaster.

» Loans for farmers.

How to apply: Fill out an application online at www.DisasterAssistance.Gov, or by calling 1-800-621-3362 or 1-800-462-7585 (TTY) for the hearing and speech impaired. Be prepared to provide basic personal information and insurance information to help substantiate losses. Federal officials encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

Staff writers Jim Galloway, Andria Simmons and D.L. Bennett contributed to this article.