Pike County Judge Executive Judge Jones told the Fiscal Court on Aug. 18 that federal assessment and approval delays are a major barrier to repairing roads and bridges damaged by recent floods, and that the county faces large engineering costs for permanent repairs.

"Since the February flood, the Pike County fiscal court has received exactly $0 from FEMA," Judge Jones said, urging residents to understand the federal process before criticizing the pace of local repairs. "FEMA has not yet completed the assessments in Pike County."

The judge said the county has identified roughly 3,000 damaged sites across county roads, bridges and related infrastructure and conservatively estimates damage at about $50,000,000. He said large repairs often require fixing embankment and slope failures with drilled steel, rebar and cribbing rather than simple repaving.

Tim Fields, identified in the meeting as deputy emergency management director and applicant agent for FEMA projects, told the court that FEMA’s assessments come back as projects with a scope of work and cost; the county may accept those, renegotiate, or send projects back if the FEMA estimate is too low. "It'll come back with FEMA's scope of the work and the cost. And then we have to look at it and see if that's something we can deal with," Fields said.

Road supervisor Fabian Little (referred to in the meeting as Fabian) and the judge gave project examples and rough cost estimates discussed at the meeting: Marshall's Branch was described as a rough estimate of $600,000–$700,000; the Woodman Summer and Middle Elk bridges were described together as approaching $2.5 million; and South River Road was characterized as likely to cost upward of $1 million. The judge said some projects previously repaired have failed again and that permanent repairs require pre-construction geotechnical testing and drilling to determine the proper length of steel anchors.

Judge Jones described the federal process: FEMA teams complete field assessments, enter project data into FEMA's portal, and those projects move through FEMA's costing division before the federal agency obligates funding. The judge emphasized that obligation means FEMA has approved payment; in many large projects the county must complete work first and then seek reimbursement, often with payments following on the state's schedule. "On a big project, we're not gonna get the money until we're done," the judge said. "We can apply for partial funding based on what we've done so far, but we won't get all the money until the end."

Court members said the county has not had to borrow funds to date but acknowledged that some counties have. The judge urged patience and said some projects will likely take years to complete, given the scale of damage, limited numbers of specialized contractors, and federal review times.

The judge and staff also described how crews and FEMA assessors are working locally. Fields said FEMA inspectors are active in the county and that some projects may be consolidated; he estimated there are roughly 20–24 FEMA assessors working in the area. The judge said road crews continue routine maintenance and temporary repairs while awaiting FEMA approvals for permanent work.

The court did not adopt new policy during the discussion; the remarks were an informational update and explanation of the county’s interaction with FEMA and the expected timelines and costs for major repairs.

The county court encouraged residents to direct questions about FEMA’s process to federal officials, and to recognize that local crews and commissioners have been working on assessments, temporary fixes and coordination with engineers and FEMA.