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Gov. Br ian Schwei t zer sai d Wednesday he is waiting for an assessment of the damages caused by flooding at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation so he then can request President Barack Obama to declare a disaster in the region, which would allow federal money to be used to repair those damages.
Raymond "Jake" Parker, chair of the Chippewa Cree Tribal council, said before Schweitzer arrived that the faster that happens, the better.
"We need this declaration as soon as possible so we can get some answers," Parker said, adding, "We don't have the money." State Rep. Tony Belcourt, D-Box Elder, who also heads the Tribal Chippewa Cree Construction Corp., said he believes the damage at the reservation is in "the tens of millions of dollars." That's just a few weeks after flooding in May damaged infrastructure on the reservation.
"We had a million-dollar damage the first time," Belcourt said.
The most recent flooding damaged homes, wiped out roads and bridges, and damaged the recently built $12 million Rocky Boy Health Clinic. Tribal officials are working to drain levels of water that still are causing concerns about dam failures.
Parker and Belcourt said that, if the water levels continue to drop, the situation should be much better in a couple of days.
The water level has just dropped enough in the last day or two for assessments of the damage to begin.
Schweitzer said the state has authorized using $50,000 to help with the situation, but the fact that the damage happened on a sovereign Indian reservation has complicated matters. He cannot declare a disaster area on a reservation and cannot use state disaster funds on a reservation, he said.
Once the Federal Emergency Management Agency completes its assessment — the FEMA team was expected to arrive at Rocky Boy today and will take a few days to do the assessment — Schweitzer said he will request that Obama declare a federal disaster area. That will allow federal money to be used to help repair the damages.
Parker said he understands the situation, although it is frustrating.
"I'm not looking for dollars from the state," he said. "It's just a protocol we have to go through.
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