Mission accomplished.
Four certified Howard County building inspectors returned this week from Iowa, having spent several days slogging through several feet of water polluted from the waste of hog farms to perform more than 400 assessments and inspections throughout Louisa County, an area heavily affected by June?s flooding.
“They were genuine, friendly people [in Iowa],” said Sean Kelly, chief of the county?s Inspection and Enforcement Division.
“You didn?t hear anybody complain.”
The inspectors were sent after Iowa emergency officials requested help from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency through a state-to-state Emergency Management Assistance Compact, said Bob Frances, chairman of the county?s Department of Inspections, Licenses and Permits.
Kelly and inspectors Ed Ackerman, Kenneth Brown and David Baer conducted their inspections in several areas including the towns of Oakville, Letts, Grandview and Elrick Junction and along the banks of the Mississippi River.
In the Oakville area, they inspected “cabin camps” along Lake Odessa, which are small lakefront collections of cottages, vacation spots along an impoundment of water that originates from the Mississippi River.
In the area, the hog farms were near houses.
“We were now able to drive right next to one of the hog production waste facilities to see (and smell!) what one of these pits is like,” the inspectors wrote in a journal they kept during their trip.
“They are huge. The homes are permeated with this putrid water and it is very sad.”
The inspections included 268 single-family houses, four multiple-family houses, 80 mobile homes and 50 businesses, Kelly said.
Most of the buildings, 182, were judged to be destroyed, he said.
“Now just because we say a home is destroyed, doesn?t mean it can?t be fixed up,” Kelly said.
Louisa County Sheriff Curt Braby sent a letter thanking Howard County Executive Ken Ulman for sending the inspectors.
“They also did a little legwork for us in regards to some building codes that are sorely lacking and needed,” he wrote.
“They are all definitely invited back to our next disaster, and we appreciate Howard County letting them come out to visit.”
