Presidential Disaster Declaration approved for area counties for May storms

The state has received a Presidential Disaster Declaration for the eastern South Dakota counties that sustained public infrastructure damage in the May 12th storms.  Governor Kristi Noem said that the Presidential Disaster Declaration allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help local governments in 20 counties and on two reservations recover from public infrastructure damage sustained as a result of tornadoes, severe storms, straight-line winds, and flooding that occurred on May 12th. 

Public infrastructure damage assistance will be provided to the area counties of: Brookings, Kingsbury, Lake, McCook, Miner, Minnehaha, Moody, and thirteen others, along with the Flandreau Indian and Lake Traverse Reservations.  

In a letter earlier this month requesting a disaster declaration, Noem wrote that the storm resulted in two deaths, a preliminary number of 14 reported tornadoes, and wind gusts of more than 100 miles per hour in some places. The storms also resulted in the temporary closure of roads and highways, and nearly 70-thousand customers experienced power outages.

FEMA staff members will be arriving soon in the state to help begin the assistance efforts with governmental and certain private-non-profit entities. The Department of Public Safety’s Office of Emergency Management will be the state agency assigned to help coordinate the assistance.

South Dakota still has six open Presidential disaster declarations for other events and is working with FEMA on the recovery process for each of those disasters as well.

June 30, 2022