The City of Bartlesville has to perform substantial damage inspections after any significant flood in the Floodplain.

This is because the City participates in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Flood Insurance Program.

Floodplain Administrator Micah Seiemers said this is does not exclude other disasters.

A tornado or severe weather could rip through, but if your property lies within the 100-Year Floodplain (a.k.a. Special Flood Hazard Area) and you have damage to your proerty, the City has to come to assess your property for substantial damages.

Seimers said this relates to structure damage alone. They do not do assessements on the land. A structure has to meet a 50-percent threshold for it to be considered substantially damaged.

The City bases this off of information from the Washington County Assessor’s Office. Siemers said the home owner can go out and have a professional assessment completed as well and the City will compare the numbers.

This allows for a "new construction cost" for the structure. Essentially the percentage of damages are applied to it, which gives a total estimate of damages.

However, Siemers said everything goes through FEMA at this point. He said if you have flood insurance, you need to get ahold of FEMA. The City of Bartlesville can make a determination of behalf of the federal agency.

For more information, you are asked to call the Engineering Department at 918.338.4251.