Local News
Reasons Behind FEMA Denying Individual Disaster Assistance in FDL County
learned last week that they will not be eligible for individual federal
assistance from FEMA after a series of storms and tornadoes hit the area back
in August.
Management Director Bobbi Hicken tells us that, at this point, there is not
much help left to be found.
She says “unfortunately there is pretty limited resources that are available for people.
We still are looking into other grant opportunities, but there really is not
going to be any ‘free money’ made available.”
Hicken says that federal aid usually covers people when there is a
lack of insurance to help out.
But she tells us that in our area, “the structural
damage that we saw is largely covered by insurance, and so it doesn’t qualify
for the federal assistance. The other amount of damage that we had was because
of the debris that was scattered about from the trees and the sheds and the
outbuildings and the barns. And none of that is covered by FEMA either.”
FEMA agents noted the damage, but didn’t find it severe
enough – pertaining to people’s homes – to warrant the federal assistance.
Hicken explains that “what FEMA
assistance is for – is to really make people be able to go back into a safe
living environment. And it is largely because of the lack of insurance, and
usually the type of damage that causes the need for that FEMA assistance is
flooding.”
Fond du Lac County was deemed eligible for public assistance, Dodge County was not.