McCook Lake residents frustrated after recent North Sioux City flood recovery update

NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. (KCAU) – The City of North Sioux City announced on August 1 that construction along Northshore and Penrose Drive will be coming to a stop for the upcoming weeks. The update has left some residents feeling frustrated.

“It’s been extremely upsetting,” Penrose Drive resident Darcey Spates said. “To see how everything has been handled, the way we’ve been treated, forgotten about, neglected, has been extremely disheartening.”

“I’m glad that we’re actually getting this information, but I just want to know what’s the reasoning behind the process,” Penrose Drive resident Morgan Speichinger said.

North Sioux City says the reason they have slowed the construction is so they can ensure the maximum FEMA reimbursement for the repairs in the Northshore and Penrose Drive areas.

“It didn’t seem to have too much concern about us as residents,” Spates said. “It seemed to me that ‘oh, we suddenly want to stop this and we’re concerned about what FEMA can give us as a city,’ not what the city can do for us, or what FEMA can do for us as residents who had no choice or say in any of this”

Since the South Dakota floods have not yet been declared as a disaster by President Biden, the residents of North Sioux City are having to stand by on any progress in recovery.

“We are hoping that FEMA can come in soon and start helping us with funding, but right now we’re just waiting to see if we can even save our house,” Speichinger said. “We don’t have the money to do $100,000 worth of fixes when we don’t know if there’s any type of funding coming from the federal level.”

“Time is not our friend right now,” Spates said. “If we want to attempt to try and save anything, it has to be done now or never, because it is going to reach a point where it is just completely unsalvageable and it’s not going to be worth it in the costs. We’re going to end up paying double or triple for a house just to fix it and save it, with no guarantee this won’t happen again.”

As they wait, McCook Lake residents have found that the people they can rely on the most are the ones next door.

“We just try to support each other, encourage each other, and be there for each other,” Spates said. “Even the community of people that weren’t affected, they’re still reaching out, they still care. They’re wanting to know what they can do, and if it wasn’t for them, this would be an even greater mess.”

For updates on North Sioux City flood recovery, click here .

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