Many families affected by last years flooding on K-Beach are still feeling the impacts as the state processes claims.
Erica Chilla and her family had around nine inches of water in their crawl space due to the flooding, however did not apply for assistance because there was no damage to her home.
Chilla: “So we still have dehumidifiers going, we dump them twice a day, in the morning and at night and we have fans going downstairs, we keep the crawl space open, it’s still damp down there. We’re constantly searching corners for mold and we have mold killer everywhere. So its something that’s ongoing for us still, but we haven’t had any professional help, we’ve done everything ourselves.”
Chilla said that it took three days to dispose of nearly a ton of ruined family mementos from their crawlspace.
Jeremy Zidek with the State Emergency Management gave us an update.
Zidek: “The total amount awarded for Kenai Peninsula Borough as of the 25th of last month was $117,000, for the individual and family grant program it was about $73,000 and for temporary housing, about $43,000.”
Zidek said that out of 89 total applicants,49 have been decided on and encouraged people to keep working with their individually assigned assistance case workers.
Some residents are unhappy with the decisions on their cases. Zidek remarked that the damages had to have occurred during the flooding.
Zidek: “Unfortunately with the high ground water situation there’s things that our program cannot pay for. We want to provide as much assisstance as possible but there’s only so far that the individual and family grant program can go.”