Ozark Border to see federal money from storm damage

Ozark Border expects to recover more than $1 million in costs related to what cooperative officials described as the worst severe weather-related damage in a decade.

Two rounds of high winds and thunderstorms took out power in May across 11 counties served by Ozark Border. The cooperative suffered approximately $1.5 million in damage, including more than 170 broken power polls.

Gov. Mike Parson announced Friday that a federal major disaster declaration had been approved for damage that occurred May 3 and May 4.

The disaster declaration means federal Public Assistance will be available to 19 Missouri counties, which allows local governments and nonprofit agencies to seek assistance for response and recovery expenses associated with the storms. This includes Butler, Carter, Dunklin, Ripley, Stoddard and Wayne counties.

Utility companies are covered under this declaration, but not private individuals, said Robbie Myers, Butler County Emergency Management Agency director. A high threshold has to be met statewide in order to receive assistance for private individuals, and it is unlikely to come from this event, he believes.

Ozark Border expects to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 75% of their costs, said David Schremp, Ozark Border’s general manager. The State Emergency Management Agency is expected to cover another 10% of the $1.5 million in total damages.

“Obviously any cost that FEMA and SEMA can help the cooperative with helps to keep the Co-op costs down and therefore keeps rates stable for the members,” said Schremp. “We’re just extremely appreciative that FEMA and SEMA have stepped up and declared this. It will go a long ways to helping the membership.”

Ozark Border serves about 40,000 active accounts across its region.

The cooperative is still making repairs from the May storms, Schremp said. Power was back on to everyone within five days, but crews are still finding damaged polls and replacing temporary repairs, he said.

“This has been the roughest event we have had since the 2009 ice storm,” Schremp said in May. “We had outages in all 11 counties (we serve). I can’t remember in my 29 years a time when we had such a widespread impact.”

The system was battered by two high wind weather fronts, first on Sunday, May 3, and again on Monday, May 4.

Many isolated and difficult-to-access areas were hit, with as many as 15,000 customers out of power at any one time.

The storm systems also took down many trees, some of which damaged private homes and businesses in Butler County.

County and city governments also experienced some overtime for road crew workers and will see some reimbursement, Myers said.

“As Missouri continues to respond to COVID-19 and build on our economic recovery efforts, Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance will now provide much needed support to local governments and nonprofits that sustained the brunt of the damage from the May storms,” Parson said. “The hard work of Missouri citizens, businesses, and communities are fueling our recovery, and this federal assistance will help us continue to move our state forward.”

Parson requested the federal disaster declaration on June 16 following joint Preliminary Damage Assessments conducted by the State Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, and local officials.

The damage assessments were conducted virtually due to COVID-19. Damage and response costs were preliminarily estimated at more than $9.3 million, according to a state press release.