McCoy keeps an eye on the weather

VW independent staff/submitted information

With his retirement set for the end of this month, longtime Van Wert County EMA Director Rick McCoy is still concentrating on severe weather outbreaks for the spring season, while seeking state reimbursement from the late January winter storm and a powerful mid-March wind storm.

Recent severe weather including tornadoes has been very active in March going into April and McCoy said the upcoming weeks look extremely interesting and will need to be watched closely. He also noted that recent rains have certainly helped with the drought that persisted last fall through the winter. According to McCoy, the rain deficit was close to 12 inches but so far in March and April, the county received just over 6.5 inches, which has helped dramatically.

“I still expect some very beneficial, possibly even heavy rains in April so this should alleviate the drought,” McCoy stated.

McCoy has been looking at trends and forecasts to get a good feel for the upcoming year and said National Weather Service officials continue to point towards a very stormy wet spring, and the climate already has transitioned away from LaNino, which gave us a very cold and snowy winter and now into a neutral pattern thru June.

“What is of interest, it appears we will quickly go into a Super El Nino pattern which is somewhat rare and it will persist going into winter, McCoy said. That pattern would suppress this year’s hurricane season and would mean a mild fall for us and a warmer then normal winter with little snow.”

The longtime EMA director said he’s continuing to work with the state on the January 24 snowstorm and the March 13 windstorm. Because McCoy submitted snowfall totals of nearly 10 inches to the National Weather Service, it qualified Van Wert County to be in a top percentile of recorded snowstorms for the area. Upon receiving notification from the state that the county would be eligible for disaster assistance funds for a 48 hour period of snow removal from roadways due to snowfall and winds causing drifting snow, McCoy contacted all 12 townships, County Engineer Kyle Wendel, the cities of Van Wert and Delphos, plus the villages and requested overtime hours in the event and also hourly use of snow plows.

The political subdivisions provided paperwork to McCoy that showed the cost of $238,130 for snow removal, and McCoy filed all of the information with the state. With Governor Mike DeWine signing the Disaster Assistance Resolution earlier this week, McCoy said he can now file the final applications to receive 75 percent reimbursement for each entity.

The second application that McCoy submitted was for the March 13 windstorm.

“With that storm being so unprecedented in the strength of the wind for such a prolonged period of time, it filled many ditches in the county with top soil dirt from fields along with corn stalks,” McCoy explained. “For many farmers, they have found it necessary to clear the ditches themselves.”

In other cases, the County Engineer Office and some townships are also cleaning out the ditches. McCoy submitted a disaster application to the state requesting funds to reimburse those expenses, along with a request to reimburse the Van Wert County Sheriff’s Office for traffic control due to blocked roads from downed trees and poles. He also put in a request for the City of Van Wert after city crews cleaned up all of the tree debris across town.

In all, McCoy has asked the State of Ohio for a 75 percent reimbursement for an estimated cost of $406,088 across the county. He is still awaiting word on whether the Governor will also approve the request.