FEMA disaster money coming in for Beaver Creek Park

The superintendent for Beaver Creek Park told the Hill County Park Board Monday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has released most of the money to repair flood damage, which occurred earlier this year on the park.

A study to find the best ways to reduce damage from future events also is underway.

Superintendent Chad Edgar said during the board’s monthly meeting that he is still waiting for funding on one major project, with most already released and two permits on which he was waiting now approved.

The park was part of the region declared a federal disaster area due to flooding this spring, for the third time in four years.

FEMA officials have become a common site in this area in recent years.

A massive flood in 2010 that ravaged Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation and Beaver Creek was declared a disaster, and the next year widespread flooding that covered much of the state led to another declaration.

That declaration covered 32 counties and four reservations, including Hill, Blaine and Chouteau counties and Rocky Boy’s and Fort Belknap Indian reservations.

Work to repair damage from those floods still was underway on some parts of Beaver Creek Park when this year’s flood hit, dropping more than a foot of rain on the park in two weeks.

One of the results of this year’s flooding was FEMA approval of funding to study some of the hardest-hit areas that are repeatedly damaged to find ways to mitigate that damage in future years

Hill County Commissioner Jeff LaVoi said work is underway on that study.