Housing Assistance Dollars Heading to Arkansas

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About $4.2 million is heading to Arkansas to help with housing and other needs following recent flooding, state and federal emergency management officials said.

Housing assistance is provided to individuals, families and businesses in designated-disaster counties whose property was damaged or destroyed and whose losses are not covered by insurance.

Those eligible for the disaster aid include homeowners, renters and business owners in 16 counties that have been declared federal disaster areas. The counties are Benton, Boone, Clay, Crittenden, Faulkner, Garland, Jefferson, Lincoln, Madison, Montgomery, Phillips, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, Washington and White.

Payments have been made to residents who have registered with the agency, said Julie Bradford, spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The amounts paid vary, depending on the individual needs and circumstances.

“It is a wide range. It depends on how much damage they have,” Bradford said.

“Let’s say they’re underinsured, they might get the difference in what their insurance paid and the damage they have.”

The funding includes $3.7 million for housing and $580,000 in Other Needs Assistance, such as repairing or replacing damaged or destroyed personal property, transportation costs, medical and dental expenses, and funeral and burial costs of victims of the flooding, according to Bradford.

At least 3,257 Arkansas individuals and families had registered for assistance, according to FEMA.

Flooding has devastated much of the state and continues to threaten southeast Arkansas, where the Mississippi River won’t crest until this weekend. More than 1 million acres of farmland were inundated by floodwater, which won’t start to flow out in earnest until the Mississippi crests.

The National Weather Service in Little Rock continued to report major flooding along the White River – which flooded a stretch of Interstate 40 for several days this month – as well as Arkansas City, where emergency officials continued to monitor the levee system along the Mississippi. In Arkansas City, the river reached 52.4 feet on May 12, more than 1 foot short of the expected crest.

At least 17 deaths in the state have been attributed to storms or flooding since a bout of tornadoes struck on April 23.

The Arkansas Farm Bureau said the state’s rice crop will take a hit of about $300 million, the bulk of a $500 million economic impact farmers will feel this year due to lost crops and higher costs brought by the flooding.