Washington, DC - Yesterday, President Donald J. Trump declared that a major disaster exists in the State of South Dakota and ordered Federal assistance to supplement State, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by a severe winter storm, snowstorm, and flooding from March 13 to April 26, 2019.

The President’s action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Bon Homme, Charles Mix, Hutchinson, Minnehaha, and Yankton; the Pine Ridge Reservation to include the counties of Oglala Lakota, Jackson, and Bennett; the Rosebud Reservation to include the counties of Mellette and Todd; and the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation to include the counties of Dewey and Ziebach.

Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.

Federal funding also is available to State, tribal, and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe winter storm, snowstorm, and flooding in the counties of Aurora, Beadle, Bennett, Bon Homme, Brookings, Brown, Brule, Buffalo, Campbell, Charles Mix, Clark, Clay, Codington, Davison, Day, Deuel, Dewey, Douglas, Edmunds, Fall River, Faulk, Grant, Gregory, Hamlin, Hand, Hanson, Hughes, Hutchinson, Hyde, Jackson, Jerauld, Jones, Kingsbury, Lake, Lincoln, Lyman, Marshall, McCook, McPherson, Mellette, Miner, Minnehaha, Moody, Oglala Lakota, Pennington, Perkins, Potter, Roberts, Sanborn, Spink, Sully, Todd, Tripp, Turner, Union, Walworth, Yankton, and Ziebach; and the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, the Lake Traverse Reservation, and the Rosebud Reservation.

In addition, federal funding is available to the Sate and eligible local governments on a cost-sharing basis for snow removal for a continuous 48-hour period during or proximate to the incident period in the counties of Beadle, Brookings, Clark, Codington, Deuel, Edmunds, Hamlin, Hyde, Jerauld, Kingsbury, Mellette, and Potter

Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.

Pete Gaynor, Acting Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named James R. Stephenson as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected areas.

Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the State and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.