FEMA Money To Help Flood Recovery In Eastern Oklahoma

Dozens of counties across Oklahoma soon will be getting money from the federal government to help pay for repairing storm damage.

FEMA will give millions of dollars to those counties as they recover from the flooding we saw in late December.

In Muskogee County, the bridge on Mayer Lane is one of many that were washed out and destroyed during those floods.

The entire neighborhood there was warned to evacuate during that time.

The district's commissioner says bridges, pipes and many of the county's roads took a hard hit during December's round of storms.

That's because the rain came rapidly and all at once -- up to 15 inches in some areas.

It will cost Muskogee County at least half a million dollars to repair that infrastructure, money that would break the county's budget for the year if not for the financial help from FEMA.

Commissioner Ken Doke said during those first 48 hours of the December floods, the county dispatched nearly 200 emergency response calls.

"We saw a lot of bad washed out roads, we lost a lot of pipes, had a lot of damage to bridges this time," he said.

"[FEMA] will declare us a disaster and we'll basically do all the repairs, keep track of all the expenses, at which time FEMA will reimburse us,” Doke said.

The state says more than 100 homes across Oklahoma were destroyed, and about 100 more were damaged.