NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. (KCAU) — Flood recovery is still ongoing along Penrose and Northshore Drive, but recent updates from city officials show progress in the near future.
“Hopefully by the time we hit the real winter weather, we’ll have a hard surface to drive on and a lot of shaping of the soil and a lot of debris cleaned up,” North Sioux City ward 4 council member Greg Meyer said.
As of recently, teams have been working to grade Penrose Drive to place a granular surface on top of it, while also preparing Northshore Drive to receive a temporary asphalt roadway.
“We think it will be better for a snow plow with the removal of snow and for ice treatment with our sand and salt operations,” Meyer said. “As much traffic as this road will probably see, we thought it would be better to have an asphalt surface.”
To aid the McCook Lake recovery process, the city awarded a contract for the demolition of 20 homes that were impacted by the flood.
“The city fire marshal and the building inspector, as well as a consultant, determined that the homes were unsafe and the homeowners determined that they weren’t going to rebuild the home and were willing to let them be removed,” Meyer said. “They were actually red-tagged homes, so it was a situation where they needed to be removed for health and safety reasons.”
The city is hoping to have the demolition project reimbursed by FEMA, but like many of the impacted residents, there is some frustration at the rate of recovery.
“We’re learning a lot about FEMA,” Meyer said. “We’re all first-time experiencing these flood events, and hopefully never again, but it’s a slow process. There’s a lot of steps that are required through FEMA and we’re endeavoring to do it as quickly as possible, but there’s a lot of things to go on and it’s not happening as fast as any of us would like it to happen.”
City officials say a permanent solution to Northshore Drive will be constructed at some point in the future with expected completion prior to the 2025-2026 school year.
