After beginning in Lake, St. Louis and Carlton counties in northeast Minnesota, it’s expected FEMA teams will move into northwest Minnesota this week and then on to the southwest — assessing damage from the succession of storms and flooding that have hit Minnesota since mid June. State Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Joe Kelly says about the damage assessment schedule, “We got some this week… and then we’ll have some the following week. So it’s probably gonna end up having the assessment team visit 28 counties and now three tribal nations to assess the damages.”
Kelly says FEMA is focusing on damage to public infrastructure, but also collecting data on losses to individual homes and businesses. He says based on initial damage assessments, the governor will likely be able to ask President Trump for a major disaster declaration in early August, which would bring federal assistance to repair public infrastructure. Any decision on individual assistance would come later.