Gov. Bob Riley added Marengo County to a previously existing emergency declaration for areas of the state affected by recent flooding and severe storms.

Marengo County Emergency Management Agency director Kevin McKinney said that members of the federal EMA office would come to Marengo County to survey the damage sometime in the next week.

“On Wednesday, the Marengo County Commission realized that the county had incurred a pretty good expense in dealing with the flood waters and the storms that began on March 29,” McKinney said. “That cost — $46,423 — covered equipment, overtime for the road department employees, materials and so on.

“I did a request for public assistance to the state on Wednesday to request reimbursement for that. Now, we’re included in the request.”

McKinney emphasized that a request for public assistance is for government entities, not for individual homeowners or property owners. McKinney said that Marengo County would not be declared for individual assistance.

“You have to meet a threshold,” McKinney said, “and we don’t even come close to meeting a threshold for individual assistance.

“Basically, it’s asking FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] to come in, take a look at our damage and do a survey of the areas that were affected and see if we can recover some of the money that the commission has spent to maintain the roads due to flooding.”