As the St. Louis area cleans up following Friday’s tornado that killed five people and damaged thousands of homes, Missouri is still waiting for a federal disaster declaration from the tornadoes, flooding, and severe storms that hit much of the state in March and early April.
Gov. Mike Kehoe requested federal aid following the rash of tornadoes in mid-March that killed 13 people and caused widespread damage in southern and eastern Missouri. He made a separate disaster declaration request on May 1 for 25 southern Missouri counties. Neither request has been granted yet.
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley said Missouri needs the declaration “as soon as possible.”
“Oftentimes in the bureaucracy, we saw this in the Biden administration, where we often had to wait weeks and months to get anything back from them,” Hawley told Missourinet. “I complained about it then, and I’ll make the same case now that we need assistance immediately, and I know that the President wants to deliver that assistance. I’ve been told by the White House it is forthcoming, but we need it.”
Damage assessment teams estimate nearly $27 million in damages from the March 14th and 15th storms and $25.5 million in damages between March 30th and April 8th.
“We can’t wait any longer. We’ve got homes to rebuild. We’ve got businesses to rebuild. We’ve got towns to put back together. And this is the reason we have federal disaster assistance that we all pay into, by the way, so I hope it will be coming to us immediately,” he said.
Hawley’s interview with Missourinet took place before the EF3 tornado that struck St. Louis and Clayton in St. Louis County Friday afternoon. He’s scheduled to visit storm-damaged areas on Monday.
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