The 2019 flood in southern Illinois is going to be a costly one.
In Jackson County alone, preliminary flood damage reports turned into the Illinois Emergency Management Agency total just over $7 million.
Deputy coordinator of the county's emergency management agency Orval Rowe says just over $4 million comes from damage on Front Street in Grand Tower.
"The sinkholes that occurred during the flooding. But where it's at, every sinkhole is at a joint where the storm drain comes together. So, it's not a situation where you can just replace this section, this section and then three sections down. It's got to be replaced from tip to tail."
Rowe says this is a long process.
"Right now, we're still collecting everything to go to Springfield and then Springfield is going to take those numbers, send them to FEMA. Actually, FEMA the next three weeks will be out doing their disaster collection, taking our numbers, sitting down with each county and finding out 'where are you coming up with these numbers. What these numbers represent.' That'll take the next three weeks. Then, it may be another 2-3 weeks by the time they sit down and ask the president for a disaster declaration."
Rowe says there is a lot of legwork behind the scenes to comprise an accurate damage report.
