The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied some assistance for Kentucky counties affected by severe storms and tornadoes earlier this year, but the Beshear administration plans to appeal the decisions.
The federal agency denied individual assistance for Christian and Todd counties and public assistance for Leslie County. FEMA also denied requests for the Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grant Program, which funds long-term solutions to reduce the impact of future disasters, for both April flooding and the May tornadoes.
FEMA’s individual assistance program helps people affected by disasters who have uninsured or underinsured expenses. Public assistance from FEMA grants local governments money to recover from natural disasters.
Beshear announced the decisions in a Wednesday afternoon press release.
“While we appreciate the Individual Assistance and Public Assistance we were granted for most of the affected areas, we are disappointed in the decision,” Beshear said. “We are actively comparing the damage assessments, and we plan to appeal.”
FEMA sent Beshear a letter earlier this week about its decision that said the damage assessments of Christian and Todd counties for individual assistance and Leslie County for public assistance “is not of the severity and magnitude” to warrant those designations.
Some Kentucky communities were approved for about $56 million in federal funding to repair damage from the May tornadoes and April floods last week.
President Donald Trump previously approved direct federal aid for individuals in six counties hit by May tornadoes, storms and straight-line winds. Nineteen people died as a result of those storms.
This article is republished under a Creative Commons license from Kentucky Lantern, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter.
McKenna Horsley covers state politics for the Kentucky Lantern. She previously worked for newspapers in Huntington, West Virginia, and Frankfort, Kentucky. She is from northeastern Kentucky.
