Illinois will not receive federal help for people, businesses and local governments in several counties affected by floods and severe storms.
FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate said in a letter the damage from the floods and severe storms in December “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 Feb. 26. Individual Assistance was requested to help people and businesses recover; Public Assistance was requested to provide reimbursement to local governments for some of their disaster-related expenses.
Both forms of federal assistance were denied.
“This is yet another example of how the federal government’s population-based threshold for determining assistance works against states with large metropolitan areas,” James Joseph, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, said in a news release. “We will be reaching out to our emergency management partners in the affected counties to see if there is any additional information that would support an appeal of the denial of either type of assistance.”
Bureau County was included in the state’s request for federal assistance for local governments.