Several counties in central Iowa, including Dallas County, were named in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster declaration earlier this week.

Tuesday a national disaster declaration was signed by President Donald Trump which allows for federal funds to be used following the derecho storm on August 10th that caused more than $15 million in damages and left nearly 20,000 without power county-wide. Dallas County Emergency Management Coordinator AJ Seely explains what this money will go towards, [Monday President Trump authorized the public assistance category of the declaration. This one’s really misleading. So this assistance is not for the general public, it’s for government infrastructure and eligible nonprofits that provide, what FEMA considers, essential services. So that opens up reimbursement funding avenues for those entities. So like parks damages for example, tree removal, any emergency work that took place to minimize additional losses, that would all be eligible.” 

Last week Governor Kim Reynolds issued a state disaster proclamation that includes Dallas, Greene, and Guthrie counties, which activates individual assistance programs.