Mount Vernon to FEMA: Let us build our levee!
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. -- Officials in this city on the banks of the Skagit River says it has a solution to help stem the floods that occur on average every six years. But they say the process is held up in government bureaucracy.
The river has flooded 17 times in the last 100 years -- most recently in 2006 when town residents raced to build makeshift sandbag walls to keep the river out of the city.
Business owners say the time for talk is over, it's action time:
"I was born here 63 years ago, they've been talking about this river forever," said store owner Al Lyon. "And it isn't getting better, 'cause you can't dredge the river, so the silt gets deeper and we can't raise the dikes so how are we going to be protected?"
Down at City Hall, Mayor Bud Norris has the plans for a new levee. It's a plan engineers and consultants love. But FEMA put the plan on hold, saying it wants a plan for the entire river system.
That angered city officials.
"We've all seen what happened in New Orleans and St. Charles, Missouri, and different places around the United States when FEMA hesitated to go forward with efforts," Norris said.
Businessman Gary Thor says the government needs to focus on what's important.
"I think what's happened is we've got a situation where the bureaucracy is so ingrained in its desire to study things, that they've lost sight of what the goal was and that's to provide protection," he said.
FEMA says it worries about other places along the Skagit, like Hamilton, Lyman, Sedro-Woolley and Concrete. They say flood control projects have to be coordinated or they may fail.
But Norris says the city plan considers everything and FEMA wants to wait for results of a Skagit River study started in 1997.
"Asking one community to wait on something that's taken 12 years and it is still in process. You know should we wait and allow our folks to be flooded?" Norris wondered.
Mt Vernon says it's not ready to go with the flow. They are going to call in the big guns, Senator Patty Murray, Representative Rick Larsen and anyone else who will listen.
In the meantime, the City of Mount Vernon has asked FEMA to reconsider its decision. And Norris plans meetings Thursday with local congressional staff members.
The river has flooded 17 times in the last 100 years -- most recently in 2006 when town residents raced to build makeshift sandbag walls to keep the river out of the city.
Business owners say the time for talk is over, it's action time:
"I was born here 63 years ago, they've been talking about this river forever," said store owner Al Lyon. "And it isn't getting better, 'cause you can't dredge the river, so the silt gets deeper and we can't raise the dikes so how are we going to be protected?"
Down at City Hall, Mayor Bud Norris has the plans for a new levee. It's a plan engineers and consultants love. But FEMA put the plan on hold, saying it wants a plan for the entire river system.
That angered city officials.
"We've all seen what happened in New Orleans and St. Charles, Missouri, and different places around the United States when FEMA hesitated to go forward with efforts," Norris said.
Businessman Gary Thor says the government needs to focus on what's important.
"I think what's happened is we've got a situation where the bureaucracy is so ingrained in its desire to study things, that they've lost sight of what the goal was and that's to provide protection," he said.
FEMA says it worries about other places along the Skagit, like Hamilton, Lyman, Sedro-Woolley and Concrete. They say flood control projects have to be coordinated or they may fail.
But Norris says the city plan considers everything and FEMA wants to wait for results of a Skagit River study started in 1997.
"Asking one community to wait on something that's taken 12 years and it is still in process. You know should we wait and allow our folks to be flooded?" Norris wondered.
Mt Vernon says it's not ready to go with the flow. They are going to call in the big guns, Senator Patty Murray, Representative Rick Larsen and anyone else who will listen.
In the meantime, the City of Mount Vernon has asked FEMA to reconsider its decision. And Norris plans meetings Thursday with local congressional staff members.