PRYOR — The Mayes County Commissioners are waiting on federal funds to help repair road damage from last winter’s storms.

Oklahoma was struck by two major winter storms in December 2009 and January 2010. After the snow and ice storms, the ground was frozen a foot deep. When it started to thaw, roads disintegrated all over the county.

Johnny Janzen, director of Mayes County Emergency Management, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared both storms a disaster. However, FEMA ran out of funds before Mayes County could be allotted reimbursement for the disasters.

“We’re still sitting here waiting on the money,” Janzen said.

Janzen said FEMA is allotted a certain amount of money each year. Because there were so many disasters nationwide, FEMA did not have the funds to cover disaster repairs.

“They had some major disasters this last year and they just run out of funds,” said Janzen.

FEMA did reimburse the county for the emergency work, which included spreading salt and sand on the roads. Janzen said the county has not received one dime toward road repairs.

Congress has to meet and allot FEMA more money, said Janzen. He said one of the state representatives is hoping the county will receive reimbursements from FEMA by the end of the year. “That’s not a guarantee,” said Janzen.

Alva Martin, District 1 Commissioner, said the FEMA damage allotment for his district is $355,000. When the funds become available, Martin said FEMA will pay 75 percent of that amount, and the state will pay 12.5 percent.

Martin said the reimbursement will not be enough to get the roads back into the shape they need to be, “but it will help.”

Martin said he plans to mix fly ash into the road materials on his asphalt roads. The fly ash sets up the road base. District 1 will then cover the roads with gravel and chip and seal them.

Martin hopes to begin adding the fly ash in two to three more weeks. He has already started placing the fly ash on some of his gravel roads.

“You’ve got to start someplace,” he said. “We’ll eventually get there.”

Commissioner Darrell Yoder, District 2, said he is expecting FEMA to estimate his damages at half a million dollars.

“We’re spending all our money on keeping them patchable,” said Yoder. “Until we get that FEMA money, our hands are kind of tied.”

FEMA estimated $45,000 to $50,000 worth of damages in District 3, said Melinda Ward, the district’s secretary.

“We didn’t have as much damage,” Ward said. “We have all these hills over here, so the water didn’t sit and freeze like it did in District 1 and District 2.”

FEMA did not approve any of District 3’s asphalt roads, Ward said, because the roads had cracks showing previous need of maintenance.