Muskogee County Awarded $1.5M By FEMA For Flood Repairs

Muskogee residents still recovering from 2019’s historic flooding will soon get more help as FEMA is giving Muskogee County more than $1.5 million to help people rebuild.

"It was a total surprise and a total loss. Every picture every document, wedding photos, high school photos everything was gone," said flood victim Dorian Steeber.

Steeber and his wife, Carla's home was severely damaged from 2019's devastating floods. Everything they own was under several feet of water because part of the Arkansas River runs behind their home.

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"The water at its highest was roughly here at the base of this beam," Steeber showed News on 6.

The couple has repaired a lot of their home over the past two years but still have a long way to go. Hundreds of people around Muskogee County are in the same boat as the Steebers. Thankfully county commissioners just received more than $1.5 million dollars from a FEMA advanced assistance grant.

"We know that some people were able to kind of restore themselves. But there were a lot of people who weren’t able to do that," Steeber added.

County Commissioner Ken Doke says the grant will also allow them to do studies on homes in anticipation of a larger grant coming from Housing and Urban Development.

"That will help us determine whether a home must be completely taken down and the elevation brought back up before then or a home can just be repaired exactly at its current elevation," Doke explained.

Doke said $29 million will come from HUD funds will go to Muskogee, Tulsa, and Sequoyah Counties.

For victims like the Steebers, any help they can get is welcome as they work to get their lives back to normal.

"If there are funds available it would go a long way to putting some of these lies back together including maybe putting ours back together," Steeber said.