White House Denies Flood Victims Assistance

By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Just weeks after losing nearly all their belongings and having to rebuild their homes, flood victims learned the federal government won't be stepping in to help. The White House chose to deny Gov. Brad Henry's request for individual disaster assistance following the June 14 record rainfall.

For families like the Altdoerffer's, whose home had to be completely gutted, the news is especially hard to take. Since the floods the family has been spending their days trying to cleanup and rebuild.

"We just have to keep going, every night we are out here, and here it is the weekend; we're out here again," Richard Altdoerffer said.

Hearing the federal government won't be providing help comes when the Altdoerffer's learn they will likely have to pay somewhere between $60,000 and $70,000 to rebuild their home. Fortunately they said, a lot of their hard work is paying off.

"Once the installation and dry wall went up it's started looking like a home again, it started getting easier for us, but it's still been a long tough two weeks," Richard Altdoerffer said.

The family was surprised to learn their wouldn't be federal assistance saying that FEMA had been to their home on three different occasions.

"They took measurements, they saw how high the water was," Michelle Altdoerffer said.

The White House didn't give an explanation as to why they chose to deny Oklahoma County residents assistance.

"They look at the major damage to destroyed homes and with the major damage to destroyed homes, the tornadoes has over 100, and this one [the floods] we were more in the 30s," said Albert Ashwood with the state's Emergency Management.

Ashwood said while the White House's decision was disappointing, he said there is still hope homeowners will see some assistance. He said Oklahoma City can appeal the decision or flood victims could still get help from the Small Business Administration. If approved, homeowners would be eligible for low-interest loans.

However, for those like the Altdoerffer's, whether they get help or not they will continue keep moving forward.

"It's tough, we'll get through it with the help of God and our friends," Richard Altdoerffer said.

Only 2 percent of those impacted by the floods had flood insurance.