FEMA Denies State’s Request for Federal Assistance for December Floods

SPRINGFIELD – The state of Illinois was notified today 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."

On Feb. 26 the state submitted a request for two types of federal assistance: 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.

"This is yet another example of how the federal government’s population-based threshold for determining assistance works against states with large metropolitan areas," said James K. Joseph, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.   "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."

Counties included in the state’s request for federal assistance for people and businesses were Alexander, Christian, Clinton, Douglas, Iroquois, Jersey, Madison, Randolph, Sangamon and St. Clair. Counties included in the state’s request for federal assistance for local governments were Alexander, Bureau, Calhoun, Cass, Cumberland, Jackson, Jersey, Madison, Menard, Monroe, Morgan, Moultrie, Pike, Randolph, St. Clair and Vermilion.