Llano County approves disaster declaration
Debris and vegetation line the banks of the Llano River after the Oct. 16 flood.
By Phil Reynolds
The Highlander
Llano County will draw on the experience of other counties when it asks for federal disaster relief funds.
County commissioners approved a resolution declaring a disaster in an emergency meeting Thursday, Oct. 25, following flash floods that indundated neighborhoods and carried away a highway bridge.
The experience comes from Burnet and Harris counties, both of which have already applied for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds in other instances, and have the forms at hand.
Still, it’s not a process that will happen overnight.
“We’ll start picking up debris and trash as soon as we can, but we don’t have a place in Llano County where we can put it,” County Judge Mary Cunningham said after the meeting. “We’re looking to neighboring counties to provide disposal sites.”
She said the federal aid process also takes some time.
“It’s something we have to do right,” Cunningham said. “We can’t take the chance of FEMA coming in here and saying we did things wrong, so there’s no funds available.”
She said the county would like bids for trash disposal to be finished and turned in before Wednesday, Nov. 7. That will give the county time to process bids to be on commissioners’ agendas for the meeting Monday, Nov. 12.
Requests for bids should appear in the Highlander this week, Cunningham said.
