Surf Cat

The federal government announced this week that Kenosha, Milwaukee and Racine counties would be eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to repair infrastructure damage from the Jan. 10-12 storm.

In Kenosha County, the storm’s high winds combined with historically high water levels on Lake Michigan to cause flooding and wave damage along the lakefront. The storm damaged shorelines, walkways and storm sewers along the lake and left some parks and beaches covered in stone and debris.

Horace Staples, Kenosha County Emergency Management director, said that, with the declaration, federal funds will be available to the county, the city, Pleasant Prairie and Somers, and possibly to other public agencies that suffered damage. He said FEMA will work with those entities as they complete engineering and budgets for repairs.

Although FEMA representatives visited the county earlier during the process of studying whether the damage met guidelines for a disaster declaration, communities will now have to document their plans for repairs before getting access to funds. “It’s a different process, a much more fine-tuned process,” than the earlier FEMA visit, Staples said.

According to Gov. Tony Evers’s office, the FEMA program will provide 75 percent of eligible costs for the projects, with state and local agencies providing 25 percent. “The state will work closely with communities included in the declaration and FEMA to ensure they receive federal assistance as quickly as possible,” said Dr. Darrell Williams, Wisconsin Emergency Management director, in a formal statement.

Mathew Collins, Kenosha County Parks director, said that when FEMA visited the county in early February they assessed damage to the Kemper Center at $2.1 million.

Collins said the county had been working for several years on an engineering plan that would improve shoreline protection at the site when the storm hit.

“Utilizing those plans we have a very good idea of what it would take to restore the shoreline properly,” Collins said, with the aim to not only repair damage from the storm but to improve the revetment to protect the property from future damage. That plan, he said, includes a low concrete wall to protect against future erosion, along with larger armor stone.

“Kenosha County’s goal is to make sure we have long term improvements and repair done so this doesn’t keep happening year after year,” Collins said.

He said working with county engineering plan, he hopes FEMA will help the county complete that plan.

Meanwhile, Collins said, county parks staff has been working to clear debris from the site. He said the path behind Kemper Center, which was damaged by the storm, is likely to stay closed for some time. The path that loops behind the Anderson Arts Center to 66th Street remains open.

Staples said the timeline for the availability of FEMA funds is unclear.