Those options include temporary reassignments of workers from other county offices to the emergency operations center or temporarily hiring somebody who has experience with state and federal disaster aid.
District 3 Commissioner Kenny Payne said he and his cohorts believe the move is necessary due to the scope of the ongoing disaster caused by flooding along the Arkansas River. While it appears likely federal disaster funds will be made available for infrastructure damage resulting from the flood, reimbursements are based upon documented losses.
"We are staffed to take care of emergencies that happen around here on a fairly consistent basis, but this is a little bit outside the scope of your regular emergency," Payne said. "What we don’t want is to get so far behind on them that we have to guess about what we are doing, when we did it, and who did it."
Payne said the idea is to give Muskogee County Emergency Management Director Jeff Smith the flexibility "to make sure people aren't floating away" and ensure the documentation required by state and federal officials is completed. He said the assignment, based on conditions presented Tuesday, could continue "for at least the next couple of weeks."
"We don't want anything that's not ours, but we want to recover everything we can," Payne said about disaster funds that could be made available by Federal Emergency Management Agency for damage to the public infrastructure and recovery efforts. "I think that is our responsibility to the taxpayers."
District 2 Commissioner Stephen Wright said whether the decision is made to use somebody "in-house or hire somebody, we are going to have to ... give them a helping hand." Wright has an employee he described as his "right arm" who fits the bill because of her knowledge about FEMA disaster aid, but he is dealing with flood-related issues in his district.
"My roads, I have maybe five roads down there that are ... where people are suffering," Wright said, noting there are some bridges he believes will be safe but are threatened by floodwaters. "I would be upset if I couldn't get to my house — even if they can get out of their house, it doesn't mean they can go anywhere."
Assessor Ron Dean said there "is absolutely no reason for anybody to go without" in Muskogee County if their lives have been changed by flooding that has occurred during the past week and likely will continue for a while. He said assistance is available to residents of southern Muskogee County at Warner First Baptist Church and those east of the Arkansas River at the old gym at Fort Gibson High School.
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