Damage expected to surpass a million

The hail and wind storm that ravaged Hot Springs County July 1 caused severe damage to area homes, businesses and vehicles.

Contractors, automotive, and roofing businesses are flocking to Thermopolis to help us repair. Many have set up temporary business locations in town to better serve the community.

Local businesses are also scrambling to repair the seemingly endless amount of damage.

Initial estimates put damages well over a million dollars, unlike anything we've experienced in Hot Springs County for several decades.

Discussion around town has brought up memories of a storm in the late 1970s when a new gym floor had just been put in at the high school. The roof was full of skylights and the hail broke most all of them and ruined the new gym floor.

The current situation has some citizens wondering why the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hasn't stepped in to offer help.

According to Hot Springs County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Gordon, FEMA offers assistance when uninsured damage goes over one million dollars.

The majority of the damaged business, homes and vehicles in the county are insured. The damage to the few uninsured properties will probably not reach a million dollars.

In comparison, in 2005 Hurricane Katrina caused over $100 billion in damage. Some of the damaged occurred to uninsured properties so the million dollar threshold was reached quickly.

Here in Hot Springs County we suffered loss of property from the recent storm but no injuries or deaths of people were reported. For that, we can consider ourselves lucky.