Waterville community comes together in effort to recover from devastating floods
WATERVILLE, Minn. — There are no off days when recovering from a natural disaster.
"Everyday we're just chipping away, piece by piece, so that we can get this done," Amanda Sheridan, whose home was damaged from last month's flooding in Waterville, told WCCO News. "It's everything. From the surface level, you have to clean the surface, and underneath it's ripping up the carpets, ply up linoleum, and the floors are rotten."
Sheridan was among dozens of residents who lined up on Friday at the Waterville Area Community Flood Cleanup, a collective effort to properly collect and dispose of the mounting piles of debris.
"You can bring anything. You can bring paint, couches, fridges," Waterville Police Sgt. Amy Mathis explained. "We have so many people on so many different levels of where they are in the process."
Officials in Waterville say they are still in emergency mode, as the small town grapples with historic flooding.
According to data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, most homeowners in Waterville don't have federal flood insurance and there's just 33 active policies in town. Local officials hope the disaster declarations will help the 95% of people who are uninsured.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Friday announced that federal disaster assistance will be implemented for Minnesota, providing a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures insured by the Federal Housing Administration as well as foreclosures of mortages to Native American borrowers guaranteed under the section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee program.
For the latest flooding updates and resources, click here.