Work continues on washed out roads in Lincoln Co.

CANTON, S.D. (KELO) — More than a week after major flooding hit southeast Siouxland, much of the water has gone down, but some roads in Lincoln County remain closed. The rain washed out some gravel roads, which forced plenty of detours. Emergency management has been hard at work over the last week, but there is still some work that needs to be done.

In the Canton township alone, there were about 105 sites where gravel was washed out. Most of them have been repaired, but some roads are still closed.

“Just in our township, I believe we have a half dozen or so that are pretty bad that are going to take some time and have be closed down for a while,” Canton Township supervisor Sam Eiesland said.

Because of a shortage of materials and manpower, it’s going to take some time before drivers are back on their normal routes.

“It’s going to take a while. For some, if they can get gravel, if they have access to gravel, it won’t take long, but many townships now are waiting for gravel. And, all the suppliers, of course, are really, really busy,” Lincoln County emergency management director Harold Timmerman said.

“We have to have excavators. We’ve got to have the trucks, and I would say that a site like this is probably going to take a good week to really get it back up to where it needs to be,” Eiesland said. And that’s if we can get trucks. Everybody is really busy. There’s a shortage of guys that can haul the material and stuff like that.”

As the county assesses the damages, they’ll hopefully get some help from FEMA, but until then, they will be on their own.

“You don’t wait to get a check from FEMA to fix these roads. You may have to borrow some money in order to do that until the FEMA money comes in,” Timmerman said.

Counties have until July 12 to complete damage assessments. From there it goes to the state. Then, FEMA will decide where to allocate funds.

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