Officials in Southern Ohio are totaling damages after the remnants of Hurricane Helene blew through the region on Friday, leading to unexpected torrential rains and high winds that destroyed some people’s homes and left thousands without power.Larry Mullins, director of the Emergency Management Agency in Scioto County, said in an interview with Signal Ohio that the episode was the worst example of flooding he had seen there since 1997. He estimated that 1,000 households experienced damage and that, so far, around 400 households have reported damage via official storm damage forms distributed by the EMA office. Other communities in the region, including in Pike County, Ross County and Lawrence County, also suffered damage.Mullins said in Portsmouth, much of the worst destruction occurred not near the Ohio River but in areas at a relatively high elevation, after seven inches of rain fell in a few hours and overwhelmed the city’s combined sewage system. In the most severe cases, flooding removed houses from their foundations. This means that homes that suffered damage may have been less likely to have flood insurance riders on their homeowners’ insurance policies, assuming residents had insurance in the first place. There also were instances of drivers needing boat rescues from emergency workers after accidentally driving into deep water.“It flooded in places where we don’t normally see flooding,” Mullins said.“The heavens just opened up, and it was too much for the stormwater system to handle in one short blast,” Bryan Davis, chair of the Scioto County Commissioners, said an interview. No one died in Ohio. But the storm system was the same one that has caused 100 deaths across the country, according to the Associated Press, with some of the worst damage coming in western North Carolina. Gov. Mike DeWine traveled to the area on Saturday to survey the damage and meet with law enforcement, although he provoked some local backlash when he described the fallout as an “inconvenience” for residents while speaking to a local news reporter.“I know there was a lot of frustration with his comments that it was an ‘inconvenience,’” Scottie Powell, a Scioto County commissioner, said during an emergency county commission meeting Monday morning. “It’s clearly not an inconvenience.… It’s not an inconvenience when you can’t live in your house. It’s terrible.” Scioto County officials are encouraging residents to fill out the damage forms, which are the first step in the bureaucratic process of seeking an official disaster declaration, which can make the region eligible for extra resources to recoup the damage. Sandy Mackey with the Ohio Emergency Management Agency similarly encouraged residents of other counties to do the same with their local county management agency. The state EMA has a list of county EMA directors on its website.“After a significant event such as this, we have to wait for the water to recede and for the emergency management agencies to get out and assess the damage,” Mackey said.Another possible form of government assistance is for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. By filling out the Ohio Job and Family Services’ Form 7222, SNAP recipients can get reimbursed for the cost of replacing food – capped at the value of the recipient’s monthly benefits allotment – that spoiled due to flooding or a power outage lasting at least four hours. However, without an official disaster declaration, American Electric Power or other power companies have to verify an outage. As of Monday morning, around 3,900 customers in Scioto County were without electricity, Mullins said, down from a high of around 13,000, or about a third of all customers served in the county by American Electric Power. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services says around 17,000 people in Scioto county receive SNAP benefits, or 23% of the county’s population, the second-highest percentage in the state.If Scioto County documents $325,000 in total damages, it can trigger a state disaster declaration, which can allow the National Guard to assist with the cleanup along with other potential state resources, county officials said. To trigger a federal disaster declaration, which would make the area eligible for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, there must be $22 million in assessed damage. Davis, the Scioto County commissioner, thinks the state declaration is likely, but is less sure about the federal threshold, unless Ohio were to become part of a multi-state disaster declaration.Otherwise, residents’ best bet is to work with their insurance companies, thoroughly documenting damages to their homes and their cars, Mullins said. If homeowners’ insurance lacks coverage for flood damage, it’s possible that sewage backup damage coverage may work as an alternative.“Call your homeowners’ insurance. Let them know what’s going on. That’s really all we can do right now,” Davis said.During Monday morning’s county commission meeting, which was streamed online, one resident described knee-high water rushing downhill and into his house through his storm door window. “Within 30 minutes, it was up to here,” the man said, gesturing to his chest. Officials said the water also receded pretty quickly after Portsmouth’s sewage system sump pumps caught up. But it continued raining through the weekend, ending on Monday.“To be honest with you, we’re just moving slush around. With the mud, it needs to get solid a bit more before we can move it out of the way,” Davis told Signal.Davis said the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army are among the private organizations helping in Portsmouth. The Red Cross passed out 35 free disaster kits on Monday, although they were all claimed as soon as they became available. A short-term problem for local government, he said, was locating and buying enough 30-foot dumpsters to haul away debris.Davis said he understands the need for accountability with disaster funding, but he also said he is frustrated with the red tape associated with it, given his community’s urgent needs.“All we can do is keep our receipts and hope we get reimbursed eventually,” Davis said.Davis said he imagines DeWine has seen worse damage elsewhere in the state. But he said the governor didn’t visit the hardest-hit area and came after the worst of the flooding already had receded. “When you get to see it flooded and you’ve got people walking through six feet of water or deeper and they’re trying to get from house to house so they can save their belongings, it’s more than an inconvenience,” Davis said. “We’re very, very lucky we didn’t have anybody lose their lives.”The post Hurricane Helene’s aftermath leads to unexpected flooding in Scioto County appeared first on Signal Cleveland.First published by Signal Cleveland.