Olmsted County among six counties to receive disaster assistance
(ABC 6 News)- On Wednesday, Governor Tim Walz authorized emergency assistance for six counties in Minnesota that suffered damage caused by severe flooding and thunderstorms in the summer of 2024.
Olmsted, Dakota, Lyon, Ramsey and Scott counites will receive state assistance to help cover damage to public infrastructure caused by severe flooding between June 16 and July 4, 2024.
Isanti County will receive assistance caused by severe thunderstorms on August 26, 2024.
In a press release Gov. Walz said, “I’m grateful for Minnesota’s emergency management team for coordinating closely with counties to assess damage and help communities recover from severe weather events. We’re committed to continuing to do our part to help communities recover from last summer’s severe weather.”
Unlike the roughly $25 million in federal FEMA money the state received from last year’s storms, this new money will only be for public infrastructure – things like roads, bridges and parks.
The state does not have any individual assistance programs like FEMA does, which Olmsted County did not quality for at the time.
That’s because, unlike counties like Freeborn and Mower, Olmsted’s damage wasn’t as widespread.
“There’s a federal indicator, like a damage threshold,” said Jonathan Jacobson, a captain in the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office and director of emergency management. “There’s a certain dollar amount that we have to reach as a county, but we did not meet that threshold.”
Part of that could have been that not enough people responded to the damage surveys sent out last summer.
Capt. Jacobson says only about 150 people took part in the surveys, which compared to the county’s population isn’t a lot.
However, it would be impossible to know if more applicants would have made a difference because individual assistance doesn’t come with as defined a threshold as public infrastructure assistance does.
“It’s hard to say how many or if we would have gotten approved if we had another 50 homes or 100 homes or 300 homes,” he said.
Across Olmsted County, the total amount of damage equals about $700,000, which the state will only cover about 75% of – roughly $525,000.
Receiving that much money though depends on all of the entities, from the city of Rochester to the surrounding townships to the school districts, utility companies, or other groups, applying for the aid.
Much of the damage caused by the storms was cleaned up shortly after, so some entities will likely be able to get reimbursed sooner, but for others the process could take up to a year.
The remaining 25% is still the burden of the taxpayers, but that won’t have any lasting effects.
The money was already spent on clean up last year. The state’s assistance is simply reimbursing that cost so taxpayers don’t have to foot the entire bill.