The devastating storm that traveled through Beltrami County and surrounding areas on June 21 fell $800,000 short in qualifying for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding, Beltrami County Emergency Management Director Chris Muller confirmed Wednesday.
Additionally, the window of opportunity to log further damage to meet the threshold has passed.
Muller noted that Beltrami County should qualify for Minnesota’s Disaster Assistance Contingency Account funding, but is awaiting confirmation. This funding would provide a 75% reimbursement of public infrastructure damage, with the county expected to cover the remaining 25%.
If approved, Bemidji and other municipalities would work with the county to receive a reimbursement for public infrastructure damage.
Still, the MDACA reimbursement only applies to public infrastructure owned by the county and does not apply to private infrastructure owned by residents, who must rely on insurance and other funding streams.
This development followed Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s visit to Bemidji to assess storm damage on July 25. While in town, Klobuchar commented that she, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith and District 8 U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber would work together to apply for federal funding if the state qualified.
FEMA funding would have provided relief to the state and the county with a 75% federal reimbursement for public infrastructure damage, with the state expected to cover the rest.
Beltrami County’s Preliminary Damage Assessment with Homeland Security Emergency Management clocked in at $9.7 million. Other counties and municipalities went through the PDA process, but the threshold of $10.7 million was not reached by all parties, which is why the state did not qualify.
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