CADIZ — Excessive rainfall late last week that caused flooding throughout Harrison County has prompted officials to declare a state of emergency.

County Emergency Management Agency Director Eric Wilson said this is the first procedural step toward helping entities receive financial compensation for recovery efforts.

Wilson met with the Harrison County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday morning to discuss the issue.

“Thursday, Friday we saw an unusually damaging amount of flooding that occurred. We had parts of it around the county — Tippecanoe, Upper Clear Fork. We had pockets all around in there. Jewett was hit very hard, Scio was hit really hard and Bowerston was hit hard,” he said.

“… The number one thing that we do in an emergency like this is to make sure the people are taken care of and everyone is safe. Unfortunately, Thursday, we had multiple water rescues where vehicles were in high water and people needed assistance getting out of their vehicles. And in Jewett, there were multiple residences where people had to be evacuated.”

Now that the water has receded in most areas, Wilson said crews are focused on the recovery stage. He recommended Commissioners Don Bethel, Dale Norris and Paul Coffland sign a declaration of emergency in the county,

“Unfortunately we’ve been through this process before with flooding, and we know one of the first steps that we as a county needs to take is to make that declaration,” he said.

Wilson said his office is assessing the damage incurred from the flooding. He said the government recognizes two types of damage — individual, which is residences, and public, which includes items like roadways and water systems.

“Our office is looking to hear from everybody that was affected by the flooding — water in your basement, water on the first floor. We are going to record the information from all the people that we’ve had that were affected by the flooding and we’re talking with elected officials and taking a look at damage,” he said. “We want to capture the damage from the flood for individuals as well as for infrastructure.”

Wilson said he is hoping to round up all the information by next week in order to complete a rough estimate of damages. The information will then be forwarded to the Columbus EMA, where it will be submitted for possible Federal EMA funds.

“We know from our experience that things move rather slowly. There’s an expectation that there’s going to be assistance right away from the federal government and it just doesn’t work like that. They really expect us to take care of things as best we can locally,” he said, adding that it could be late spring or early summer before discussions are conducted with FEMA regarding damage reimbursement.

“We want to try and recover as much money as we can for the residents and townships and villages in Harrison County, so this is what we can do to get the ball rolling.”

Also in attendance were village administrators and officials from Bowerston, Scio and Cadiz. Bowerston Village Administrator Bart Busby said that community was “hit pretty hard” by the storm and is in need of some assistance in recovery efforts.

“We have some serious damages, and we don’t have the funds to fix it and say, ‘Hopefully we get some money later on.’ We can’t do that but if we could have some help upfront,” he said to commissioners.

Scio Village Administrator Jason Tubaugh said the village is dealing with a similar situation. He said the water was up to his chest on Friday.

“Going into the water treatment facility, there’s still up to your knee in water inside the facility. It’s never flooded like this that I’ve seen,” he said. “We have an emergency fund in Scio, but the furnace, hot water tank, two low service pumps and the generator – I’m already at $30,000. I’m exhausted and that’s nothing else in town, that’s just one facility.”

Bethel asked the village officials to stick around after the meeting to further discuss damages.

Coffland then read the emergency proclamation, which concludes with: “We the board of Harrison County Commissioners, in support of the townships and municipalities declarations hereby declare that a state of emergency exists in Harrison County and hereby invoke and declare in full force in effect in Harrison County, statutes and ordinances applicable to this emergency by the government of the United States, the state of Ohio and the county of Harrison for the exercising of all necessary authority for the protection of lives and property of the people of Harrison County and restoration of local government with minimum of interruption.”

The emergency proclamation was unanimously passed.

Toward the end of the meeting, county Engineer Doug Bachman said it is anticipated that another inch of rain will fall today. He said there will be high water signs along roadways and urged residents to heed those signs.

“I urge people not to drive through high water and just be safe if we have issues,” he said.

Anyone who has sustained flood damage is asked to contact the EMA at 740-942-3922.