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Milwaukee County executive David Crowley declared his own state of emergency on Sunday as the scope of the flooding was
Immediately evident at weeks end David Crowley joins us for what's happening now and what's next and thanks very much for being here
Thank you for having me Fredrick always a pleasure
So now just under a week since these torrential rains and flooding what is happening in Milwaukee right now in the aftermath
Well, we've had an opportunity to talk to many different neighbors and businesses and and a lot of them are facing a lot of devastation
And then really heartbroken as far as what this severe weather has done to them
And so right now we are in the recovery mode
And so we have damaged assessment teams working in conjunction with not only our local official
But as well as the Wisconsin Emergency Management and our job is to make sure we do this analysis report that damage
Hopefully we'll be getting that preliminary data done today
We'll be then turning that over to the Wisconsin Emergency Management System
But to see if we can get a FEMA declaration
I've heard that they may be coming as soon as next week more to hear on that
But when they're here that gives an opportunity to do an analysis of our down our damage report
And for them to actually to see the damage themselves before making a declaration
What what is the scope of the damage?
Do you know yet? Do you have kind of a ballpark dollar damage figure?
When you think about a thousand year flood it could create a lot of a lot of damage right thousand year range storm coming into our community
And so far we've had the opportunity to to actually assess over
2,900 different levels of properties and we see a lot of more properties who have either major damage or completely destroyed
And so we know that when it comes down to our public infrastructure
It exceeds $23 million to date at this moment
And so as we continue to do these damage assessments, we're just asking for the public's patience
To contact 211 as much as possible to report that damage so we can give an accurate assess. What was worst hit?
You know, I don't think you know when you talk about Milwaukee County
I would say what was worse hit is is our pride, you know, this is something that we never really understood was coming our way
But when you see what has happened in Greenfield what has happened in West Alice a city of Milwaukee, including what was told
So there's a lot of damage and we've also heard about other communities outside of Milwaukee County who've also faced a certain level of damage
And so it is our hope that we will be able to receive some level of FEMA assistance
Compared to what we've seen out there with my own eyes
I do think that we've reached that threshold for a presidential declaration. How are residents coping?
You know, the residents are doing everything that they can many are heartbroken
But I've also seen many folks who whose spirits are still high and I'm glad to see folks helping out
Been going to different neighborhoods seeing neighbors helping neighbors businesses really stepping up
But what this community really needs is is for their neighbors
You know folks from all across this state to really come down and assist with the cleanup helping us to get to those
You know recovery efforts get into that place of normal as much as much as we can and as quickly as possible
But I want folks to know that you know our spirits aren't broken
You know, we are strong and resilient in Milwaukee County
And we're gonna do everything that we can it's not only recovered, but to rebuild the best way possible
You're kind of putting a call out for people to come to help. Is there enough help on the ground?
You know when you're when you're talking about the level of devastation and not just the the physical damage
But the psychological damage that this can have you know, we need as much help as possible, right?
I mean, there are so many seniors people with disabilities who still haven't been able to clean out their basements and still have
You know severe damage in their in their in their basements, but you also have
individuals who have lost you know, their foundation completely and you know have close to three feet of mud and water still in their
Basements and needing to help to clean those things up and so we do need as much help as possible
We're asking folks to not only contact the Red Cross to provide some level of assistance
But we do have our website county dot moi key dot gov a slash
2025 flood resources where individuals can sign up to to create their own volunteer teams to go out and help
individuals are you optimistic that FEMA will deliver federal disaster aid here?
You know, I am hopeful that they will be able to give us that federal declaration
When you think about the level of damage again, $23 million in public infrastructure alone
And seeing homes who are already being quoted a hundred thousand dollars in order to rebuild
To the to the magnitude that they feel comfortable with I mean, that's quite extreme
And we know that you know insurance isn't going to cover everything for individuals
And so if we want to bring back
Individual assistance and be able to rebuild the best way possible that declaration is going to be extremely key moving forward
And so I'm grateful for for governor evers and making the state declaration
And so hopefully you will be seeing that at the federal level. So the walkie County executive David Crowley. Thanks very much
And good luck. Thank you so much for having
Thank you
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you all giving us a chance to tell our story and put out a call for help of course of course
All right
Thank you. We will be
You know, of course watching and covering so thanks. Thank you. Have a good one. You too