Swept away by Irene: Prattsville's records

Prattsville lost a lot more than bricks and mortar in the Irene floods.

The Daily Mail reports that most of the town's financial records for the 2011 fiscal year were destroyed in last year's epic flooding, making a proper audit of the town's books impossible. A recent federal audit of town finances, required because of the amount of money Prattsville has received from FEMA, didn't have much to go on:

Providing background, the report states, “substantially all of the town's books of original entry; the general and subsidiary ledgers; related accounting manuals records such as work sheet and spreadsheets supporting cost allocations; computations and reconciliations; as well as substantially all corroborating evidence in support of the financial statements were destroyed by Hurricane Irene and the subsequent flooding which also destroyed the town's headquarters.

“The scope of our work was not sufficient to enable us to express, and we do not express, an opinion on the financial statements,” the report states.

Despite the gaps, an accountant with the auditing firm left Prattsville with a good impression:

“There are limitations in terms of what we can express an opinion upon. I can say they are a hard-working group of people,” Churchill said in an interview after the report was released.

“We do have a positive opinion on the federal money, which we were able to fully access, and their records were very well put together [applying for] federal assistance,” Churchill said.

Readers, did you lose important records in last year's flooding?