Gov. Andy Beshear said he’s confident Kentucky will receive assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency following the weekend’s deadly flooding.
At a news conference in Richmond Wednesday, he said state officials are documenting property damage to access needed federal dollars. Madison County received around 10 inches of rainfall last weekend, causing moderate river flooding. County officials said they are assessing the damage after completing search and rescue efforts Monday.
“This ought to be a slam dunk for public assistance, what it's done to roads and bridges and infrastructure,” Beshear said of the flooding. “I think in counties like this, though, I'm about to go out and see it — and certainly in Cumberland County, where I just came from — we should get individual assistance, and I will press as hard as I can to try to get the federal government to provide those resources.”
The state reported three deaths in Madison County as a result of the flood and one death in Jackson County, though the coroner said the death was not directly related.
Public assistance from FEMA helps local governments rebuild infrastructure. Beshear is also asking residents to document property damage as Kentucky Emergency Management works through a process that opens some federal funds to homeowners. The department is asking residents to create an inventory of lost items and photograph any damage.
Beshear and Madison County Judge-Executive Reagan Taylor said at least 40 homes in the county were damaged, though that number isn’t finalized.
“I think that if we've got 40 significantly impacted homes in Madison County, we ought to be able to include them in a declaration for individual assistance,” Beshear said.
In the meantime, state officials are making the case to FEMA.
“Right now, we’re in the part where we’re trying to figure out how much damage we have across the state in numerical dollars because it's a threshold that we're trying to look at, the number of homes that have been impacted,” KYEM Director Eric Gibson said.
Beshear said KYEM has had conversations with regional FEMA officials and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
KYEM is asking flood victims to start the documentation process online. The agency will send someone for an official damage assessment.
