South Dakota’s Congressional delegation is asking President Trump to quickly sign Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s major disaster declaration request for Campbell, McPherson and Walworth counties.
In a letter to the President, Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds and Rep. Kristi Noem expressed their support for the request. If approved, federal disaster assistance would help communities recover from severe thunderstorms and flash flooding which caused significant damage between May 17 and May 18.
“We applaud the work of federal, state, county, and local entities in response to the storm system, as their efforts helped to mitigate the immediate impacts of the storm,” the delegation wrote. “However, the impact to public infrastructure across the three counties is severe. As Governor Daugaard indicated in his request, the storm was of ‘such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments, and supplemental federal assistance is necessary.’ This determination was reached on the basis of preliminary damage assessment completed by the state in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
