The federal government has approved Kentucky’s request for a disaster declaration in 76 counties — including Christian County — to assist with recovery from storms in early March.
A severe daytime storm on March 3 brought down hundreds of trees across Hopkinsville and Christian County, ripping out utility lines and damaging structures. Across the state, storms produced dangerous winds, flooding and several small tornadoes. Five Kentuckians were killed, but there were no serious injuries in Christian County.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced Wednesday that President Joe Biden had approved his request for the disaster declaration.
“It’s only approved for public assistance,” Christian County Emergency Manager Randy Graham told Hoptown Chronicle. That means government agencies and certain critical nonprofits, such as volunteer fire departments and the county rescue team, are eligible for reimbursement for up to 75% of expenses resulting from their response during and after the storm.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency requires detailed documentation of expenses. It starts before a storm even hits. For example, as soon as the March 3 storm was forecast, Graham alerted local agencies to keep track of their expenses with police, fire, public works and utility crews.
At some point, FEMA will schedule applicant briefings with the government entities.
“It’s a prolonged process with FEMA,” Graham said.
Christian County was covered by the disaster declaration because the county met the required threshold of at least $323,000 in uninsured or underinsured damages. The FEMA threshold is based on a county formula of $4.44 per resident, with a population of 72,748. Along with the county threshold, the state must also meet a threshold of $7.98 million in damages.
Graham said most of the threshold in the March 3 storm was met by damages to Pennyrile Electric lines.
It is unlikely the county’s damages in the March 31 storm will qualify for the same type of FEMA assistance that comes with a federal disaster declaration. Even though that storm caused more damage to buildings, especially in downtown Hopkinsville with straight-line winds, there was not enough damage across to meet the required state threshold.
After Beshear visited Hopkinsville on April 7 to see damages from the most recent storm and meet with local officials, he pledged to find other ways to assist the community with storm recovery. That resulted in Mayor James R. Knight Jr. and County Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam signing local emergency declarations.
Graham said a local declaration could open up state resources to help the city and county with cleanup efforts.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
