The reopened pizza shop served free pepperoni slices. The first responders fried funnel cakes, topped with a generous dusting of powdered sugar. The mayor joined young children in a conga line dance.

Nearly five months after floodwaters ravaged Westernport, a rural Allegany County town of nearly 1,900 residents, the yearslong work of patching up, repairing and rebuilding paused, briefly, for a celebration.

To honor the small Western Maryland community’s recovery and resilience, around 100 people crowded Main Street on Friday evening, enjoying free ice cream scoops, dancing to pop and country music, and touring the newly restored volunteer fire station.

“There’s been such sadness,” Westernport Mayor Judy Hamilton said. “Families have really been through a lot. I thought, what better thing to do than a block party?”

The festivities occurred as Westernport clings to hope for funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which local officials say is critical to completing certain infrastructure repairs sooner rather than later.

In July, the Trump administration denied Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s request for federal disaster aid to Allegany and Garrett counties, months after the region endured its worst flooding in 30 years.

Moore appealed the decision in August. He wrote that the floods had caused an estimated $33.7 million in damage to roads, bridges, utilities and other public infrastructure, nearly three times the state’s threshold to qualify for disaster assistance. The Trump administration has yet to decide on the appeal.

Local officials are concerned that the ongoing federal government shutdown, now in its fourth day, could further delay a decision.

In response, a White House spokesperson said the administration is still able to process disaster declaration requests during the shutdown because they fall under a “life and safety exception.”

Still, FEMA risks running out of money the longer Congress fails to pass a spending bill.

Hamilton said Westernport can’t afford to wait on the federal government. Instead, the town has relied on a network of churches, volunteers, local contractors, nonprofits and businesses to make emergency repairs and get the town operating again. The state has contributed around $1.5 million toward Western Maryland’s recovery.

“In this town, the resilience [and] the patience has been unbelievable,” Hamilton said. “People have been waiting for help for months, and it’s trickling in.”

Officials said the next priority in Westernport’s recovery is preparing for winter, which tends to arrive sooner in this Western Maryland mountain town.

Before temperatures drop, the town is scraping together funds to repair a major water line that lost its insulation in the flood. Hundreds of homes could lose water if the line freezes, officials warned.

Town administrator Laura Freeman Legge estimated that dozens of homes in Westernport also remain without heat, after flooding destroyed basement furnaces and residents struggled to afford replacements. At Friday’s block party, a local fraternal organization handed out free space heaters.

Sue Boyle is among the residents struggling to recover.

When the flash floods came in May and overwhelmed a narrow river that runs through the middle of town, Boyle, who had recently undergone a knee replacement, had to be rescued from her Maryland Avenue home by boat.

Her basement filled to the ceiling with water, destroying thousands of dollars’ worth of appliances, books, photographs and holiday decorations. A replacement boiler would cost $100,000 to install, so for now her home remains without heat.

Boyle and her husband, Roy, said the response to the flood has revealed the best of Westernport. While they were displaced from their home, Hamilton made them a hot meal. Church members mucked out their basement. Neighbors pitched in to install new appliances. Strangers donated over $4,000 to a personal GoFundMe.

“For weeks afterward, everyone just pulled together,” Sue Boyle said.

The Boyles said they came to Friday’s block party to see people who had helped them. They enjoyed a funnel cake in front of a sign on the municipal building that read, “The River Rose, And So Did We!”