Teams from the state and FEMA begin week three of assessing damage from flooding and severe storms that hit Minnesota since the third week of April. This week they’ll visit the Grand Portage Band Of Chippewa, and Aitkin, Cass, Cook, Lake, Lake of the Woods and Saint Louis counties — plus Koochiching County, still the epicenter of record flooding. “We just have to wait for the water to go down so we can properly assess the damage,” says state Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Joe Kelly.
Minnesota officials project eligible damage will exceed 27 million dollars — nearly three times the threshold for public assistance. State Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Joe Kelly says, “That gives the governor… the logical basis for which to ask the president of the United States… to authorize federal disaster assistance.”
Low-interest loans from the federal government are now available to eligible ag producers in 60 Minnesota counties who have physical structure or livestock damage from this spring’s severe storms and/or flooding. Federal officials are waiting to see whether crop planting delays caused by bad weather will trigger additional assistance for farmers.