The Washington Post reports:

As water rushed down Church Street, Theresa Boal hurried to save the antique furniture and knickknacks inside the funeral home her family has owned and operated in Allegany County, Maryland, for more than a century. A downpour had caused Georges Creek, which runs through the middle of town, to surge and flood the streets of Westernport in an hour.

Her 10-year-old son was at school a short walk down the street, and she couldn’t get to him because of the rising water. Her three pit bulls were locked away in a room on the second floor of her brick home next door. But Boal didn’t have time to save anything else before water filled with muck forced its way inside.

“It was so fast, you can’t even think to do anything,” Boal, 38, said.

More than two months after the devastating flood swept through Westernport, its mark remains on the small town of about 1,800 residents.

Cars inundated with water during the flood sit abandoned along Maryland Avenue, their doors and trunks left open to reveal interiors splattered with mud. One of the town’s emergency access roads is blocked by piles of gravel at both ends of the street, placed there after a resident’s truck fell into a crater under the pavement. Many residents lost their washers, dryers, water heaters and furnaces when their basements filled with water, and they can’t afford to replace the expensive appliances — especially not all at once.

Westernport town administrator Laura Freeman Legge said she estimated the town’s damages at $10 million, not including the damage to peoples’ homes and personal property. For a town with an annual budget of about $2 million, many repairs will need to be put on hold, potentially for years.

On Wednesday, the town suffered another hit. The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied a request for $15.8 million to make repairs across Allegany and Garrett counties. The decision came as a shock to local leaders, who said that even after the agency disqualified millions of dollars in damage from the request, the county and state still met thresholds to qualify for assistance.

“We met the criteria,” Westernport Mayor Judy Hamilton said. “So, we’re confused, and we don’t understand why we were not given the FEMA assistance.”

Many people in the area affected by the flood said they felt like the FEMA denial was politically motivated, because Maryland is a Democratic-run state. But Allegany County, which sustained the lion’s share of damage from the Georges Creek flood in May, is one of Maryland’s most conservative communities. Republican voters outnumber Democrats more than 2 to 1 in the county, and the region’s elected representatives in state government — Sen. Mike McKay and Del. Jim Hinebaugh Jr. — are both members of the GOP.

“Even though Maryland is a Democratic state, up here they’re not. They voted red. And I think that’s where the frustration for the residents is,” Hamilton said. “Now they feel like the president has turned his back on them.” [Continue reading…]