Local officials may be able to seek federal help in fixing roads and budgets flooded by recent storms, but state and local taxpayers will still pay part of what may be the costliest infrastructure repair job the state has ever seen, officials said.

Local governments will learn in the coming weeks whether they're eligible for federal and state help to cover 87.5 percent of their flood expenses on everything from washed-out highways to ruined firemen's boots.

But even with that possible help, their expenses will likely be considerable.

"If I've made a request for something important so far, we've gotten it," Nancy Osterhaus, mayor of the city of Columbus, said of the help from state and federal authorities such as the Wisconsin National Guard. "These are natural disaster events (and) we will work our way through those, but of course it's a strain."

Federal relief efforts have moved quickly, state and local officials said. But so far no final decision has been made on whether any local governments will get assistance, since the federal disaster declarations for 12 counties in the state so far offer help only for individuals and businesses.

Gov. Jim Doyle said Wednesday he will seek federal disaster declarations for most if not all of another 18 counties, including help for local governments.

"We have to see what the facts are. But from what I've seen … I would feel quite confident that all 30 counties are going to qualify," Doyle said.

Brig. Gen. Don Dunbar, the head of the Wisconsin National Guard, said there's damage to bridges, dams and even parks and nature trails such as the Cheese Country trail between Mineral Point and Monroe.

"I couldn't begin to estimate what the dollar amount's going to be," Dunbar said. "Whether it's millions or tens of millions ... it may be the most that Wisconsin has ever seen."

Hannah Vick, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said initial assessments of damage to public infrastructure started this week and would go least into next week.

Vick couldn't speculate on whether additional federal disaster declarations would be made but acknowledged the damage is widespread.

Doyle and Dunbar also said Wisconsin has benefited from a new mindset at FEMA in the wake of the agency's much-criticized response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. When Doyle requested a federal disaster declaration for the first five counties about 11 p.m. Friday, President Bush granted the request in less than 12 hours, Dunbar said.

"There's been a major culture change in FEMA," Doyle said. "The federal government has really stepped up."

What that means for local officials is they should find out more quickly whether they're eligible to be reimbursed for 75 percent of qualified expenses such as repairs to infrastructure and overtime for emergency workers, said Lori Getter, spokeswoman for Wisconsin Emergency Management.

The state will then pay another 12.5 percent of those costs, leaving the remaining 12.5 percent to the local governments.

For major highways such as Interstates, the Federal Highway Administration will reimburse repair costs at rates ranging from 80 to 100 percent, said Bob Fasick, a highway operations engineer for the state Department of Transportation.

Congress is also moving to rush disaster relief to Midwest states as part of a Iraq war funding bill. Lawmakers negotiated Wednesday over how much to add to President Bush's request for $1.8 billion in flood relief.

Tim Freitag, Jefferson city administrator, expects most of the city's costs to be covered and so far he's been able to navigate the bureaucracy.

"That's never easy," Freitag said. "But we're satisfied so far."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.