USDA Agency Spends Over $2 Million to Help Restore 11 Storm-Damaged Middle TN Counties

Nashville, TN — The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provided more than $2 Million to help Tennesseans recover from a series of deadly storms in fiscal year 2008. Prior year flooding and high winds from 2008 tornadoes damaged county roadsides, blocked creeks and streams, and resulted in significant soil erosion in 11 middle Tennessee counties. NRCS gave more than $1.8 Million in financial assistance to the affected counties while spending $300,000 to provide technical assistance.

The counties included Macon, Giles, Maury, Wayne, Cheatham, Marshall, Humphreys, Sumner, Trousdale, Hickman, and Lewis. Funding from the NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program allowed local communities to stabilize eroded roadsides and streambanks. It also helped remove debris that blocked streams and utility crossings to avoid significant damages from future stream flows.

State Conservationist Kevin Brown says EWP funding for other impacted counties will continue through fiscal year 2009, which began October 1, 2008. “EWP is a recovery program that relieves hazards to life and property resulting from a natural disaster. NRCS helps counties by providing 75 to 90-percent of the construction costs. Counties usually provide the remainder in cash as in-kind services, but the tornado damage in Macon and Sumner counties in February 2008 was so great that it was declared an exigency, meaning that the needs were urgent and necessary, so in that case we were able to pay 100-percent of the costs,” Brown says.

The work accomplished with the money stabilized more than 150 sections of roadside and about a dozen bridges and culverts in fiscal year 2008. It restored road and bridge access to rural communities and prevented environmental damage from a petroleum pipeline impacted by the storms. The work resulted in $3.3 Million worth of economic benefits and protected property.

In all, workers stabilized more than 13,000 feet of streambank, and protected almost three miles of road, making them safe for drivers and pedestrians. Removal of debris from streams prevented future runoff that would have further destroyed or eroded the streambanks at downed tree locations, caused flooding to homes and property and damaged roads and utilities.

For more information about the EWP program, visit the NRCS in Tennessee website at: http://www.tn.nrcs.usda.gov/ or contact your local District Conservationist at the nearest USDA Service Center. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

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