HURON — In a special meeting called for the purpose, the Beadle County Commission approved a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) emergency disaster declaration for the county related to the May 12 storm and the damages from that storm.
To receive a FEMA emergency disaster declaration, the county needed to have more than $78,500 in public infrastructure damage, beyond private damage done from the storm. Beadle County Emergency Manager Taylor Jans expressed that reaching that number would be no problem, based on the reports on county property already brought to his attention.
With county declarations, the state of South Dakota will make a similar declaration with FEMA. The needed damage amount to public facilities for the state was incurred in Castlewood alone during the storm.
The last statewide FEMA emergency disaster declaration was in fall of 2019.
