According to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, the State of Illinois was notified on Thursday that its request for federal assistance to help people, businesses, and local governments in several Illinois counties recover from flooding has been denied. In a letter notifying the state of the denial, FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate said the damage from the floods and severe storms, “was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments, and voluntary agencies.”

The state submitted a request for two types of federal assistance on February 26. They were individual assistance to help people and businesses recover and Public Assistance to provide reimbursement to local governments for some of their disaster related expenses. Both forms of federal assistance were denied.

James K. Joseph, Director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, stated, “This is another example of how the federal government’s population-based threshold for determining assistance works against states with large metropolitan areas.” He further stated they will be reaching out to their emergency management partners in the affected counties and see if there is any additional information that would support an appeal of the denial or either type of assistance.

Counties in our Regional Radio listening area that were included in the state’s request for federal assistance for people and businesses were Christian and Sangamon. Counties that were included in the State’s request for federal assistance for local governments were Cumberland and Moultrie.