Lafayette County reports minimal home damage, $55 million in farm damage
While flood damage to homes in Lafayette County was minimal, damage to public property was enough to qualify local units of government within the county to obtain federal assistance. But the overwhelming amount of flood damage has been to agriculture, Sheriff Scott E. Pedley said Friday.
As floods ran through much of southern Wisconsin in the past two weeks, only 10 homes in the largely rural county in the southwest part of the state were damaged, and FEMA inspectors said the county would not qualify for disaster aid for private property when they did damage assessments this week.
Damage to roads, parks, bridges, trails and other public property was more extensive, Pedley said, and "it appears that all units of government within Lafayette County will, most likely, qualify for federal disaster relief for the costs to repair or rebuild roads, facilities and some labor and equipment fees expended during the recent storms."
Indeed, Lafayette County made the list of 14 counties Gov. Jim Doyle said Friday would receive FEMA assistance for such repairs.
FEMA workers who were in the county Tuesday estimated storm damage of more than $200,000 to the Cheese Country Recreation Trail, more than $15,000 damage to McKellar Park in the Village of Blanchardville, and at least $50,000 damage to county roads.
All of that pales in comparison to losses in agriculture, Pedley said.
"The most significant amount of damage in Lafayette County is the damage which has been done in agriculture," Pedley said. "Preliminary estimates indicated that approximately 35,000 acres of corn, soybeans, alfalfa and wheat have been lost for a total estimated value of some $55 million."
County officials are seeking an agriculture disaster declaration to offset some of those damages.
