Mon, Nov 09 2009
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Published July 02, 2009 10:48 pm - A veteran of floods and ice storms, Charles Smith has had to rebuild the inside of one house and cut up a lot of downed tree limbs in the past 50 years. In May, fierce winds sent giant trees toppling in his front yard and deprived his rural Webb City home of electricity for several days. He had some flooding in his basement. FEMA opens disaster-recovery center By Derek Spellman dspellman@joplinglobe.com A veteran of floods and ice storms, Charles Smith has had to rebuild the inside of one house and cut up a lot of downed tree limbs in the past 50 years. In May, fierce winds sent giant trees toppling in his front yard and deprived his rural Webb City home of electricity for several days. He had some flooding in his basement. Smith entertained bids for the removal of a 100-foot length of tree and for work on his basement, although the 71-year-old decided to do the job himself after seeing the prices. “I’ve always been self-reliant anyhow,” Smith said Thursday. He said he has temporarily forgone his summer fishing plans to cut up downed trees, and replace the carpeting and linoleum in his basement with tile that he is installing himself. “You can either cry about it and say ‘woe is me,’ or you get off your a-- and get it fixed,” he said. Local officials and residents say cleanup operations from the May 8 windstorm are substantially complete in Jasper County, while the federal government is ramping up its assistance programs. Keith Stammer, emergency management director for Joplin and Jasper County, said he thinks communities have been recovering well despite the damage to private and public structures. “Unfortunately, we’re experienced in this,” Stammer said. “For the most part, everyone is cleaned up or close to cleaned up.” Last week, local governments, school districts and other public institutions were briefed about the assistance available to them through a federal disaster declaration. The public sector in Jasper County sustained $1.3 million in storm damage. Stammer said the damage was assessed and repaired quickly, with the work complete or almost complete. Much of that damage was confined to Carthage Water & Electric Plant infrastructure and to areas of Carl Junction. In Carthage, the storm took down “a lot of trees all over town,” said Bob Williams, executive director of the local utility. “There were some places where really big trees came down and took down electric lines,” he said. “We had 300 to 400 customers without power at one point.” There also was heavy tree damage at the Carthage Municipal Golf Course. Downed trees have been cleared away, but workers said there still is some work ahead in removing trunks and filling holes left where trees toppled, roots and all. 
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