Up to $28,800 per family made available for flood victims

MARTINSVILLE – Leanna Starnes sat on the stairs leading to the second-floor bedroom of her home June 7 and watched the floodwater rise. It was all she could do. \nAt 9 a.m., it started to wash inside her house. By 12:30 p.m, four feet of water stood in the first floor. \nAnd now all the 55-year-old Martinsville resident can do is start over. \nOn Friday afternoon, she was still tearing everything out of her house. It laid in heaping piles on her front yard, remnants of what she had before the disaster. Inside her house, the high water left a thin line of sediment wherever it splashed. It marked the flood’s progression on the glass door, the counters, the refrigerator and what was left of the walls. \nBut Starnes is still lucky, in a way. She lived on a known flood plain and she had flood insurance. \nMany other Martinsville residents were not nearly so fortunate. They didn’t live on an area that was likely to flood and so insurance companies wouldn’t even allow them to buy insurance to cover flooding damage, and they said attempts to get even a dime out of their insurance companies were futile. \nTo help these people, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved disaster relief grants of up to $28,800 per family for flood victims in Bartholomew, Hancock, Johnson, Marion, Monroe, Morgan, Vermillion and Vigo counties. Several other counties qualified for government assistance. \nFEMA Director R. David Paulson flew into Martinsville on Friday afternoon and toured a makeshift relief center that the Red Cross set up in Poston Road Elementary School. He told reporters FEMA had mobilized and was doing everything it could to help Hoosiers affected by the recent flooding. \nFlanked by Gov. Mitch Daniels and U.S. Congressmen Steve Buyer and Mike Pence, Paulson praised the speed and effectiveness of the state’s relief efforts. \nDaniels, Buyer and Pence, in turn, praised Paulson for FEMA’s assistance. \nBefore Paulson arrived, Daniels and Buyer canvassed the milling crowd of Martinsville residents who were waiting for disaster assistance at the school, shaking hands and promising relief to anyone within arm’s reach. At one point, Daniels did “the wave” with people who were lined up along a hall waiting to talk to a Red Cross assistance adviser. Many had been waiting several hours to get help. \nHowever Bryan Lessard, 32, said he showed up at Poston Road School at 7:45 a.m. Friday and waited until 3:30 p.m., only to be turned away. \n“They told me not to even bother applying for assistance,” he said. \nLessard estimates that the flood caused at least $12,000 in damages to his home and his car, but because of the way it was damaged by the flood waters, the Red Cross and FEMA likely won’t \nhelp him. \nHe said he resents Daniels’ optimistic assessment of the emergency relief efforts. \nThe streets of Martsinville were littered Friday with heaps of refuse that people had pulled from their homes – casualties of the flood water. One homeowner posted a rueful “yard sale” sign next to a haphazard pile of furniture, insulation, children’s clothes and picture frames that had been ruined by the flooding.