BROOKINGS — The recent destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, including areas that received 20 inches of rainfall, precipitated a cautionary tale from Emergency Manager Bob Hill at Tuesday’s Brookings County Commission meeting.

“We had this big disaster on this hurricane that did the damage in Florida, but then it moved up the coast,” he said. “All these houses that flooded, I’m hearing 80% don’t have flood insurance because they were told they didn’t need it. That’s a dangerous thing for an insurance agent to say.

“Anybody can get flood insurance. Brookings County participates in a national flood insurance program. … I recommend if a citizen could afford it to look at flood insurance. Talk to your insurance agent,” Hill continued. “Flood insurance is available to any property in Brookings County, and pray for the people out on the East Coast.”

Beyond the hurricane, he also pointed out a few other tidbits of information, including:

• The county no longer has any COVID-19 testing kits available for the public. The ones it did have on hand have expired, and Hill said the state would not be sending any more.

“Members of the public that need or feel they have COVID-19 need to contact their local health authorities or purchase the kits through a local pharmacy,” Hill said.

• Red flag conditions on Monday led to a burn ban in the county between 1 and 8 p.m. The county’s ordinance addressing the issue has such conditions as a trigger because the wind could carry embers aloft, setting off unintended blazes elsewhere.

“People should not burn during those times,” Hill said.

In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners:

• Heard from Highway Superintendent Brian Gustad that the countywide road striping project wrapped up on Sept. 26.

• Heard, again, from carbon-capture pipeline opponents whose concerns were similar to what they had said at previous county commission meetings. These included safety, local control, eminent domain and prior legal actions taken by Summit Carbon Solutions.

As of right now, Summit has taken no action to acquire the CO2 pipeline easements in Brookings County that had been obtained by the now-defunct CO2 Navigator Heartland Greenway project.

That said, opponents want commissioners to pass a resolution opposing Referred Law 21, which will be on the ballot on Nov. 5. That issue deals with pipeline regulation, including giving counties the right to impose a surcharge and to, per the South Dakota attorney general’s title, “establish a Landowner Bill of Rights.”

Needless to say, not everyone’s on the same page when it comes to the measure, with much of the concern centering on how RL 21 could affect local control.

Find more details on RL 21, along with other election issues that will be on the ballot, on South Dakota Searchlight at https://southdakotasearchlight.com/voter-guide/2024/.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.