FARMINGTON — About $2 million in federal emergency watershed money is being made available to Davis County to help in its recovery from the Dec. 1 hurricane-force windstorm.
The windstorm caused millions of dollars in damages to public properties across the county, resulting in the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepping in to provide federal assistance.
The grant the county is to receive from Natural Resources Conservation Services will be designated to help clear the county’s flood control channels, which were filled with debris as a result of the storm, Davis County Public Works Director Kirk Schmalz said.
On Tuesday, the commission accepted the grant, which will pay the county a maximum of $2.15 million with the agreement that the county provide a 25 percent, or maximum $666,000, match.
Schmalz said the county is not committed to spending all of the grant money being made available to it. But the windstorm that resulted in FEMA providing federal assistance to about six cities did blow debris and broken tree limbs into some of the flood control channels and streams, causing significant damage.
Schmalz said, “It was awful. It could have been worse, but I’m glad it wasn’t.”
The county used some of its own funds to clear the critical areas in the channel, Schmalz said, but these emergency dollars will allow the county to complete the work that still needs to be done.
“It’s a big plus for us,” he said.
The county will have 202 days as of March 20 to execute the funds.
“It is a great blessing to get it at this point and time,” Davis County Commissioner John Petroff Jr. said.
Davis County Commissioner Bret Millburn commended the work of county staff in preparing the documentation needed to apply for the federal dollars.
“I’m happy we’re clearing out stream channels,” Millburn said.
NCRS will do a damage survey report categorizing the projects to be done first, Schmalz said.
Without the funds, he said, the cleanup from the storm would have dragged out for a longer time.
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