President Bush issued a major disaster declaration Wednesday for the pollution-scarred town of Picher, the second piece of good news in as many days for residents dealing with the aftermath of a powerful tornado.
The federal disaster declaration means Ottawa County residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged during Saturday’s twister will be eligible to receive individual assistance, including grants for temporary housing and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses.
Much of the residential section of the tiny, fading lead and zinc mining town in far northeastern Oklahoma was leveled by the tornado. Because Picher is located in a federal Superfund site, residents there will not be able to rebuild in the town.
The declaration came a day after those who lost their homes learned they will be moved to the front of the line for federal buyouts.
Gov. Brad Henry had asked Tuesday for the disaster declaration. He said he appreciated the quick response to the request.
“The people of Picher and the other affected communities need all the help they can get, and this is a critical first step,” Henry said.
Meanwhile, the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust, which oversees a $60 million federal buyout of the Superfund site, made the decision to reassess priorities in buyout schedule when it met Tuesday night in Miami.
Under the trust’s original plan, the next group that was to receive buyout offers would have been the owners of rental properties whose renters had been relocated and businesses affected by declining population, said Mark Osborn of Miami, the vice chairman of the trust.
“We’ve postponed those until we get tornado victims taken care of,” Osborn said. “What we’re going to do is put everything else on hold and focus on the tornado victims first. ... It was the obvious and decent thing to do.”
Officials have said 114 homes in Picher were destroyed when the EF-4 tornado, packing winds estimated at 165 to 175 mph, slammed into the town, resulting in the deaths of seven people.
Authorities on Wednesday also identified the seventh victim of the tornado. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph said 84-year-old Margie Irene Seamands of Picher died Monday from carbon monoxide poisoning while using a generator that was turned on in a garage after the storm left power outages in the area.
Randolph said two other people who suffered carbon monoxide poisoning remain in a Missouri hospital but that their conditions are improving.
The tornado struck the heart of a Superfund site beset with mine collapses, open shafts, acid mine water that stains Tar Creek orange and mountains of lead-contaminated mine waste known as chat. Local children have tested high for dangerous levels of lead in their blood.
Environmental Protection Agency scientists remain in Picher, although EPA spokeswoman Tressa Tillman said preliminary tests indicate that the tornado did not raise airborne lead levels enough to create a health risk. Tillman said testing will continue and that EPA officials likely will remain in Picher until debris removal is completed.
Prolonged exposure to lead can cause damage in the brain and nervous system, particularly in young children.
Once a thriving hub of 20,000 people, Picher’s population had dwindled to about 800 in recent years as residents accepted state and federal government buyouts and moved elsewhere.
Henry, who has visited Picher twice since the tornado hit, said Tuesday the buyout process would be accelerated, rather than slowed, by the storm. Osborn echoed that sentiment.
“We’d really like to speed up the process now,” Osborn said. “Everybody gets it and everybody is working hard to make the same thing happen.”
The trust had not yet assessed the value on some of the destroyed homes. Oklahoma Secretary of the Environment Miles Tolbert said it’s still possible to determine the pre-storm value of the homes in order to make buyout offers.
“The basic approach is to take what information you have — the age of the house, type of construction, square footage, any outbuildings — then take advantage of the fact that we have appraised nearly half the houses in the town,” Tolbert said.
He said it’s likely that most of the destroyed homes that weren’t yet assessed would have been located near another home that had been.
Tolbert, who attended the trust’s Tuesday meeting, said the goal is to have the appraisal process for previously unappraised homes done by June 16, in time for the trust’s regularly scheduled meeting.
Osborn said homeowners who previously had rejected buyout offers made by the trust will have those offers reopened.
