Owatonna Residents Affected by Flooding Eligible for Federal Assistance
Yesterday, Governor Tim Walz announced that the Federal Disaster Declaration has been expanded to include individual assistance for Minnesota residents. Minnesotans in nineteen counties working to recover from this year’s flooding can now request individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help recover from losses they suffered. The declaration will provide resources to reimburse individuals and communities for debris removal, emergency protective measures, and repair and replacement of damaged infrastructure.
Although Owatonna did not experience the same level of flooding as several neighboring communities, several individuals were affected by the June flooding.
While individual assistance is not a substitute for insurance and cannot compensate for all losses caused by a disaster, it is a significant step in helping people meet their basic needs and supplement disaster recovery efforts.
The following counties are currently part of the declaration: Blue Earth, Cook, Cottonwood, Faribault, Freeborn, Goodhue, Itasca, Jackson, Lake, Le Sueur, Mower, Nicollet, Nobles, Rice, Rock, St. Louis, Steele, Waseca, and Watonwan. Additional county designations may be added to the declaration if requested and warranted by the results of damage assessments.
In the coming days, FEMA, in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM), will establish disaster recovery centers to assist people in navigating the process and house state agency representatives to ensure individuals and businesses understand all the programs that are available. More information on how to access these centers will be forthcoming from FEMA.
In the meantime, individuals in the declared counties are encouraged to create an application online by visiting disasterassistance.gov/. Individuals can also call the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362. Specialists are available seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET.
The Owatonna Fire Department would like to thank the following for their help during this incident: Steele County Emergency Management, HSEM, FEMA and the Small Business Administration.