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Fromberg residents updated on flood recovery, some wanted more assistance

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The Carbon County Commissioners called a meeting to let people know how the recovery is going after the floods from last year.

There have been some repairs in Fromberg, but citizens still have some concerns.

Nearly 40 people had a chance to hear and talk with some of the agencies involved in that cleanup, during a meeting at the Fromberg Public Schools gym.

Larry Richardson had some help rebuilding after the flooding last year destroyed a home that once belonged to his parents.

"If it gets in this house, it'll ruin every house on this east end in Fromberg," Richardson said about how much of a flood it would take to get into his new. home.

Richardson says FEMA wants him to install something that would help in case of another 500-year flood.

"I can stand up under this house the way the Amish built it for me," Richardson said. "And I love it the way it is. But they want to come in and put some kind of gates under there. So if it floods again, it'll go underneath the house and out the other end."

Fromberg Mayor Tim Nottingham says the recovery has been delayed by government regulations, requirements, and agencies not coordinating.

"As FEMA came in and started working with us, a lot of the requirements from one team to another team to another team, their requirements would change as each team come in because of their different interpretations of the requirements," Nottingham said. "And we were subjected to spending a lot of hours trying to do the paperwork necessary to try to get things to go forward."

The mayor says the bridge and banks on the Clark's Fork will need to be fixed to make sure the wells do not get damaged.

"We're still working every day on flood recovery," said Cyrina Allen, Cabon County DES coordinator. "Recovery is a super long process, daunting, tiresome. It feels like forever."

Several agencies addressed some of the concerns and talked about the successes of recovery.

And while Nottingham says more could have been done, he's thankful for whatever help Fromberg received.

"Could have been more but we did the best we can with what we got," said Nottingham.