Letter to Barack Obama, President of the United States - Requesting a Major Disaster Declaration

Letter

July 18, 2014

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

As members of the South Dakota Congressional delegation, we write to express our full support of Governor Dennis Daugaard's request for a major disaster declaration for Public Assistance for Butte, Clay, Corson, Dewey, Hanson, Jerauld, Lincoln, Perkins, Minnehaha, Turner, Union, and Ziebach Counties and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe within Corson County. We also support the Governor's request for Hazard Mitigation statewide. This declaration would greatly assist in recovery efforts from significant weather events occurring June 13, 2014 through June 20, 2014.

As we described earlier this month in supporting the Governor's request for Individual Assistance, several storm formations during the specified timeframe resulted in hail, high winds, tornadoes, excessive rainfall, flooding, and lightning. In the southeastern part of the state, excessive rainfall led to flash flooding, as well as major flooding along the Big Sioux River. This flooding led to significant stress on public infrastructure and washed out miles of state-owned rail lines. Additionally, several tornadoes also struck throughout South Dakota, including an EF-4 tornado with winds between 166-200 mph near Alpena in Jerauld County and one that caused significant damage to infrastructure in the small town of Wessington Springs, including damage to the electrical grid. It is estimated that six tornadoes formed in Jerauld County alone, and 12 occurred throughout the state.

These storms had a widespread impact on public infrastructure, leading to a preliminary damage assessment conducted by FEMA. Along with the impact on individual homes and businesses, the total public assistance damages for the 12 counties and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe are estimated to be $6,831,293. In light of this level of damage, and given that the State has responded to four Presidential disaster declarations in the last year, state and local resources would be under significant stress without federal assistance.

We respectfully request that you declare a major disaster for the relevant areas of our state and that you instruct federal agencies to expedite the delivery of all forms of federal disaster assistance for which the state is eligible based upon that declaration. Additionally, we request that you authorize the use of the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program statewide to assist State officials to implement projects to mitigate the impact of future disasters. We would be pleased to offer any assistance that you may require in fulfilling this request.

Thank you for your prompt consideration of this important matter. Please do not hesitate to contact any of us if we can provide you with additional information.

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