By Steve Browne
Times-Record staff writer

Federal Emergency Management Agency figures confirm what some already suspected: Barnes County infrastructure was, per capita, the North Dakota county hardest hit financially by last spring’s flood.
Federal and state assistance for North Dakota counties, cities and individuals affected by the flood has topped $132 million, according to a FEMA news release, and a lot of the funds are landing in Barnes County.
Of that $132 million, about $67 million was for public assistance, and almost $8 million was for individual assistance grants, according to figures supplied by John Ashton, external affairs officer at the FEMA office in Bismarck.
About $36 million went to federal agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers, Coast Guard, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Customs and Border Protection.
Barnes County is the second-largest recipient of public assistance grants for emergency measures, debris cleanup and damage to public facilities in North Dakota. Public assistance grants approved as of Nov. 3 for 2,230 repair sites totaled almost $5.5 million, about 8 percent of the total public assistance for the state. Barnes County’s population was just less than 12,000 in 2000.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Dec. 9, print edition of the Valley City Times-Record.