Piedmont residents cleaning up debris/SD FOLLOW UP
Beware unlicensed contractors
By Steve Miller, Journal staff
PIEDMONT —- Residents in the Piedmont area were still cleaning up, digging out and drying up after Friday night’s wind, hail and rain storm.
Some folks were still raking branches in their yards, but a lot of debris had already been picked up.
Meade County highway crews cleared the city’s streets on Sunday.
On Third Street, staffers of the Piedmont Preschool & Child Care Center, along with parents and neighbors, were still digging debris out of the basement of the building on Monday.
There were about 30 children at the day-care center at 8 p.m. Friday, according to owner Bernie Haag.
Haag said about two feet of water came rushing down the hill from the west, knocking out the windows on the west side of the preschool basement and filling it completely with water and debris. The preschool was surrounded with water.
“We were like an island out here,” Haag said. “I’d say we pumped about 100,000 gallons of water out of the basement."
Volunteers and a crew from a local septic cleaning company were still working to remove about a foot of mud and debris from the basement.
However, the building’s septic system held up, and its well didn’t flood.
Haag said he hoped to reopen the preschool and day care Wednesday.
“We’re going to pull all the sheetrock, we’re going to power wash everything, start all over,” he said. “If the (staffers) say it’s not safe for kids, we’ll find an alternate location until we get it cleaned up.”
The preschool and day-care facility cares for 53 children.
On Main Street, Phil and Kim Anderson and Kim’s brother, Scott Stave of Belle Fourche, were hauling items from their flooded basement and putting them on the lawn to dry.
Anderson said residents are working hard to clean things up.
The Piedmont Volunteer Fire Department washed out all the plugged street drains.
Anderson said some wells in Piedmont are contaminated, but he didn’t know how many. Nearly all of the 150 residents have damaged homes.
He said the storm was particularly tough on low-income residents. “They might have a $2,000 car with $1,000 in hail damage, and they carry only liability insurance. What do they do?”
But he said Piedmont was in much better shape than Hermosa, where an entire subdivision was flooded out.
Anderson was one of the leading advocates behind the push to incorporate Piedmont, which voters approved one week ago today. Three days later, the new city had its first official disaster.
It still has no government and no resources, however. The first city election will be Nov. 6.
Meade County government is still helping out, Anderson said.
“The reality of it is, I don’t expect and I don’t think, most residents expect the county to have to do a lot,” Anderson said.
But he said he appreciates the county highway department coming in to clear streets and set up a dump site for debris at the Lantis fireworks area.
Meade County highway crews spent most of Monday reshaping roads that washed out, including some in Piedmont, according to highway supervisor Ken McGirr. Although the roads lost a lot of gravel, there appears to be no major damage to bridges or other highway structures.
Crews have had three trucks hauling rubble to the Lantis fireworks dump site.
“Things are looking a lot better,” McGirr said. “We’re trying to be as responsive as we can.”
He said work would continue for the next couple of weeks to improve roads. “We will also assess some drainage issues, to see if we can help some of this next time.”
State Department of Transportation crews also were clearing out culverts and storm drains and picking up trash in road ditches.
Meanwhile, Kathie Grant, Meade County emergency management director, brought some water-testing kits to residents worried about whether their water is contaminated. Grant said some people were without water, but she didn’t know how many.
She said most of the flood damage in Piedmont occurred because of the damage from the Ricco Fire in 2005 and the Little Elk fire of 2002.
“There is no vegetation to hold the debris, no vegetation to take up that moisture,” Grant said. “It just ran off the hill so hard and there was so much debris from the fire, it swept out and plugged the culverts. Over on East Ridge, it was the same kind of deal.”
Grant said it is unlikely the Federal Emergency Management Agency will step in to help because it usually requires at least $1 million in damage to public infrastructure, such as bridges, power poles and such. She said even in the three-county area hardest hit by Friday’s storm, there doesn’t appear to be that much damage to public facilities.
But she said the damage to private homes and vehicles was widespread.
“It’s amazing given the size of the hail and the damage it caused to cars, that no one was seriously hurt or killed,” Grant said.
County Commissioner Curt Nupen, who lives near Piedmont, said a lot of residents have told him they’re having trouble getting their insurance agents to come out and do damage assessments. “One guy can’t even get his insurance agent to return his call,” Nupen said.
Donna Zweifel, who lives in the Stagebarn subdivision, said she was upset that she and her neighbors weren’t notified of the Saturday meeting in Piedmont, where the Red Cross handed out tarps and plastic for temporary roof fixes.
Anderson said the meeting was called for those within the Piedmont city limits, although neighbors were welcome to attend.
In any case, the Red Cross still has tarps, plastic and lathes to patch roofs, according to Deb Byers, programs and services director for the Black Hills Area Chapter, American Red Cross, in Rapid City.
“We distributed quite a few on Saturday,” Byers said Monday. “We had quite a few folks come in this morning
Legitimate contractors
Following are some tips to ensure your contractor is legitimate:
* Verify that a contractor is licensed in the community where he/she is based.
* Make sure the contractor has a state sales tax number.
* Check with the state Department of Revenue to see whether the business has a sales tax license.
* Try to get a personal reference
Source: Meade County Emergency Management Director Kathie Grant
