May 21-27 Severe Weather: Federal Assistance Tops $3M in Kentucky

FRANKFORT, Ky.– To date, FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration have approved more than $3 million for Kentuckians affected by May 21-27 severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, landslides and mudslides.

As of Sept. 22, FEMA has approved $2,634,757 for 1,445 individuals and households. This includes:

• More than $1,714,675 in Housing Assistance.
• More than $920,082 in Other Needs Assistance.

The U.S. Small Business Administration provides low-interest disaster loans to small-businesses, households and renters throughout the disaster affected area. To date, the SBA has disbursed $382,900 in disaster loans for 17 homeowners, renters and businesses.

FEMA continues to work with Kentucky Emergency Management and Commonwealth partners to support Kentucky recovery. At its peak, FEMA had 320 federal personnel on the ground assisting with recovery.

During the application period, FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance Teams spoke with approximately 2,800 households, providing face-to-face assistance to affected Kentuckians. They also contacted more than 800 faith-based, community-based and private sector organizations.

To ensure applicants received all of the assistance they were eligible for, FEMA called disaster survivors and vulnerable populations. Through this outreach, FEMA was able to approve an additional $235,471 for 93 households and renters. 

FEMA encourages survivors to keep in touch. Help is still available, even though the deadline to apply has passed. Survivors are encouraged to notify the agency of changes to their mailing address, email address or phone number and report insurance settlements or additional damage they may have discovered since their home inspection.

Kentuckians can also get help with a pending application or appeal the following ways:

Over the last two months, FEMA operated 15 Disaster Recovery Centers and Mobile Disaster Recovery Centers to help Kentuckians through the disaster assistance application process. These centers helped 1107 Kentucky survivors with applications, appeals and disaster related questions.

For the latest information on Kentucky’s recovery from the May 21-27 severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, landslides and mudslides, as well as news releases, fact sheets and other helpful documents in multiple languages, please visit fema.gov/disaster/4804. Follow FEMA at x.com/femaregion4 and facebook.com/fema.