CASSOPOLIS — Though many areas in the state of Michigan, including nearby Niles and Berrien Springs, are still dealing with the fallout from last month’s historic flooding, Cass County is well on its way to recovery, according to testimony presented to the Cass County Board of Commissioners Tuesday.

Emergency Management Director David Smith presented to the Cass County Board of Commissioners Tuesday morning about the state the county is in after flooding, which occurred last month.

Smith said that Cass County is doing very well with flood recovery efforts, saying that much of the damage to the county was not severe and that the county has not received a high volume of damage reports related to the flood.

“You can kind of tell the damage based on the calls,” he said. “When you are only receiving a few calls a week, that’s pretty good. It’s when you receive a call every half hour that you are dealing with serious damage.”

Smith also said that while many homes in Cass County had flooded basements, the amount of flooding did not meet state standards of major flooding.

In order for flooding damage to be considered major, one must have three or more inches of water sitting in their home for at least one day. Additionally, the flooding must affect a required living space, such as a kitchen or a bathroom. Many basements do not meet this standard, no matter how many dollars of damage was caused by flooding.

“If it’s just a beautiful basement that is damaged, that is not major damage to [the state],” Smith said.

The majority of homes that did receive significant damage were on lakes and waterfronts, something that is a reoccurring theme during floods in Cass County, Smith said.

“This is the third time in 10 years that we have had the same flooding in the same areas,” Smith said to the commissioners. “So, unless local officials come together with lake associations and with residents, ‘cause that’s where the majority of it is, I’m going to be in front of you again in a couple of years talking about the same homes that are affected.”

In terms of public property damaged by the flooding, Smith said that the road commission and the parks departments are still gathering data to assess the damages.

“Those numbers are coming,” Smith said.

Despite Cass County’s low damage numbers, the county was included in a state of disaster declaration released by Gov. Rick Snyder Monday. Being included in the declaration could allow Cass County to recoup some of the costs of public damage, usually with a limit of $100,000.

“What we need to do now is get those [cost] numbers into the state,” Smith said. “We would have to show that there was a reasonable burden placed on the county of Cass to obtain this funding.”

Smith said he and his team will be spending the next few weeks getting the numbers and paperwork together for the state.

In other business:

• Cass County Sheriff Richard Behnke presented to the board about renewing E-911 millage for Cass County Dispatch, something that needs to be done once every four years. E-911, or enhanced 911, is a system used to automatically provide dispatchers with the location of 911 callers. The money needed to continue to support the system for another four years would be around $400,000, Behnke said.

The board will vote to put the millage renewal a ballot for vote Thursday during its regular meeting.