(Spirit Lake)– While Dickinson County was not included in the federal designation for individual assistance, the county WILL be getting federal aid for public assistance. Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Ehret…
“We were approved for public assistance which is the assistance to cities and counties, governments, utilities, that sort of thing, for two categories at this point, A and B. A is debris removal and B is emergency protective measures. There’s four other categories: roads and bridges, water control facilities, public utilities, public buildings. I have no doubt those will be coming but they needed to get more information.”
Ehret says as of now, Dickinson county has been denied federal aid for individual assistance…
“That is difficult to get. Where it was obvious it was needed was places like Spencer, Rock Valley, Hawarden, where you had flooding, you had water up to well into the first floor. The damages were obvious there. Here it was by and large basements and things like that where you can’t see that damage. A lot of times that doesn’t qualify you for any federal assistance from FEMA. A lot of times you have to have it up onto the first floor, that type of damage. I’m still really encouraging people to submit their damages. There’s a web site that they can go to, it’s linked off of my website, I sent out an alert earlier with the link so we can capture that data and see what we can do and maybe we can make it happen, but I’m not going to make any guarantees.”
Ehret says individual assistance through the state remains available to Dickinson county residents who are eligible…
“Which is for low income individuals and that’s up to $5,000 reimbursement for replacement of things like water heaters or furnaces or other repairs or what not, so that is still in place.”
Ehret gave the update during today’s (Tues.) Board of Supervisors meeting.
