NEWBURGH, Ind. — For a town of 3,000 people, Newburgh has had a high share of disasters in the past 10 years. There have been three tornado touchdowns and a devastating flood. But help is on the way to repair some of the damage.

Last spring during serious flooding, part of a hillside started slipping toward the river. The slide buckled steps and sidewalks at the Old Lock and Dam Park and threatened to take a pair of historic cottages that sit atop the hill.

On March 1, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced an award of $380,000 in disaster assistance funds to stop the erosion. The funds will be made available through the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program, according to Jane Hardesty, Indiana state conservationist with NRCS.

The news came with the USDA’s announcement that 20 states will receive $19.7 million for disaster recovery. This will be the second round of disaster recovery funding; earlier this year, NRCS awarded $215 million to 26 states.

Newburgh Town Manager Cynthia Burger said the funds are to be used to sink pilings into the soil on the hill to stabilize it and prevent further slippage, and to install a drainage field to remove storm water from the hill. The project also includes what geotech experts call “laying back” of the hill, she said.

The award will cover 75 percent of the cost to repair the hill; the town will have to pick up the rest of the tab. Already, more than $100,000 has been spent to recover from the flood.

The problem with the hill started in 2008 when some sliding was noticed. At that point, Burger contacted FEMA, only to find out hillsides sliding toward the river are not covered. And it did not constitute an emergency for NCRS at that time, so funding was not available.

But with the rains that started in late April and lasted through early May 2011, significant slippage occurred and NCRS recognized the problem was ongoing and the entire hill was in danger.

The slide is due to a collapse of rock under the earthwork applied to the hill in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The cottages were built in 1927, according to Burger. They were one of the perks offered to the lockmaster and his assistant at the old dam. (It’s called the Old Lock and Dam Park now, because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a new lock and dam just upstream and donated the old property to the town.) The town recently restored the cottages and was renting them for overnight visitors.

Burger has only good things to say about NCRS. State Engineer Mike Cox examined the damage and recommended tests to determine what was causing the slide. Earth Explorations, an Indianapolis geotech firm, was hired to conduct the tests.

“NCRS reached out to us after the 2011 slide,” Burger said. “This time they were here viewing it and taking measurements.”

Those tests revealed the stone under the fill is highly weathered shale and as the fill dirt became heavily saturated with the continued rains, the weight of it caused the underlying shale to rupture and water to seep in under it. Once water got under that layer, it weakened the structure of the earthwork and caused the slip.

The failure, Burger said, was detected at 15 feet underground. Most of the movement has been at that level, so when it began, the slide was barely discernable.

Burger said Cox worked with her to navigate the application process. She said agents of both state and U.S. senators and representatives also were a big help through the process.

To stabilize the hillside, engineers have recommended drilling a shaft curtain down past the shale and sandstone, between 20-30 feet, Burger estimated, and installing pilings. The soil on the hill will then be laid back. Several tons of dirt will be relocated to another site.

Final engineering plans for the pilings will be complete next week. But before the work can begin, the soil must be dry, Burger said.

That means, unless there are no spring rains, it probably will be early fall before the project can begin. And the hill continues to slip a few inches with each new heavy rain episode, so it’s a race against time.

Burger expects the project to be complete and the cottages open by the end of the year.

The NCRS award only covers 75 percent of the cost to install the pilings and a drainage field. The slide also damaged water and the sewer lines from the cottages. The concrete around the cottages was moved both laterally and vertically. Burger estimated an additional $175,000 will be needed to repair all the damages incurred by the flood.

Fencing had to be replaced at the park, new air-conditioning units installed (the previous ones floated down the river in the flood) and downtown, a drainage line washed away, along with part of the new walkway. The town has budgeted for its share of the repairs, Burger said. If the NCRS funding is not sufficient to cover the repairs to the hill, she said the town may apply for further relief.