For the second time this year North Dakota has had to apply -- and has been awarded -- a Presidential Disaster Declaration. The first declaration was approved in August.
As reporter Todd McDonald tells us; that request was based on severe springtime storms…
Justin Messner is Recovery and Mitigation Chief for the Department of Emergency Services. He says the second request is based on storms from early August.
"On August 7th and 8th a series of storms came through the state of North Dakota. There were wind speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour to over 100 miles per hour and there were 13 confirmed tornadoes that also came through the state causing all kinds of debris infrastructure damages and then also some costs for emergency protective measures.”
Messner says there were seven counties that met the damage threshold to qualify for the FEMA Public Assistance Program. He says assessments were done — and requests were made with both declarations — to see if the state could qualify for the individual assistance program.
“You know, since these were all storms and the damages were primarily high winds, hail and tornadoes, all of those damages are generally covered under a traditional homeowner's insurance. So the only thing FEMA would look at in those regards is what is insurance not going to cover.”
Overall, the state submitted $5.9 million in damages from the August storms.
Messner says when it comes to the next steps in the process and the potential delays from the federal shutdown, there is the chance some claims could be delayed. But at the same time, Messner says it's good to be living in a state like North Dakota.
“…Now, in most states in the nation, when they get a disaster declared as a federal event, FEMA will come in and will actually work with all of the impacted counties and cities and electrical cooperatives and any other eligible applicants that are part of the event. FEMA will work with them and gather their paperwork. In the state of North Dakota, we're one of the only states in the nation where we do state-led public assistance. So we actually have our own state staff that will get assigned to work with all of those impacted applicants instead.”
Messner says while the path to recovery may look clear, there is growing concern and uncertainty when it comes to the federal government and whether programs like this will be in place for possible emergencies in the future.
For Prairie Public, I'm Todd McDonald.