President declares Chicago area a disaster area
President Bush Friday declared the Chicago area a disaster area, enabling people hurt by the disastrous flooding following near-record rainfall beginning Sept. 13 to seek federal help in recovery.
Affected individuals in Cook, DuPage, Will, Kane, Grundy and LaSalle counties will be eligible for the help, said David Paulison, head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The assistance, to be coordinated by FEMA, can include grants to help pay for temporary housing, home repairs and other serious disaster-related expenses, the agency said. Low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration also will be available to cover residential and business losses not fully compensated by insurance, the agency said.
Federal funding also is available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures.
"It is needed," Mount Prospect Mayor Irvana Wilks said Friday night, speaking of the challenges the community faced following 9 inches of rain.
Reached at home, she said she wasn't sure how much the village had spent fighting flooding, but that this will qualify the village for help in paying for expenses such as constructing a temporary flood wall on River Road with Prospect Heights.
She did caution that the move doesn't open the floodgates of money and that people who incur basement flooding won't necessarily qualify for aid. In addition, it took nearly a year for the village to complete all the paperwork to apply for relief from the August 2007 flooding, so people shouldn't expect quick access to funds.
FEMA said residents and business owners who sustained losses in the designated counties can apply for assistance beginning Saturday by registering online at fema.gov, or by calling (800) 621-3362. The toll-free telephone numbers will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until further notice.
Friday's announcement came days after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Chicago awarded $26 million in contracts for construction of Levee 37 along the Des Plaines River in Prospect Heights and Mount Prospect.
Construction of two miles of flood wall, pump stations, outlet closures, backflow structures, swing gates and other features intended to reduce flooding will begin in the spring. Work along Palatine Road is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2010, while work along Milwaukee Avenue and River Road is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2011.