PIERRE, SD (KELO AM) – Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced Thursday that 12 South Dakota counties and three tribes will receive funding assistance to help recover from June storms that did an estimated $2.95 million in damage to public property
The public assistance is made available through a Presidential Disaster Declaration signed Thursday by President Obama.
Counties included in the declaration are Brule, Buffalo, Fall River, Haakon, Hughes, Jackson, Jerauld, Jones, Lyman, McCook, Oglala Lakota and Stanley. Also included are the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe as well as the Oglala Sioux Tribe that lies within Oglala Lakota County.
All of the counties and tribes included in the declaration were those included in the Governor’s request to the President earlier this month.
Various storms occurred between June 17 and 24. The weather events included an EF-2 tornado near Hayes, winds of 60 to 95 miles an hour in different storms, golf ball to baseball sized hail and heavy rains. Damage included downed power lines, debris from fallen trees and washed out roads and bridges.
Gov. Daugaard requested a disaster declaration on July 22 following county-by-county damage inspections by FEMA, state and local staff members.
A disaster declaration authorizes the federal government to provide recovery assistance for up to 75 percent of the eligible costs.