Following severe spring storms, McLean County was included in a disaster proclamation signed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday, but the county's head of emergency management said that won't change much for those who experienced storm-related damage.
McLean County was one of 11 counties covered in the proclamation after multiple tornadoes caused damage to the area on April 17 and 18.
The proclamation was signed to “provide state relief to support those impacted by severe weather and storms in order to accelerate the recovery process,” Pritzker said in a press release.
But to have an impact on Illinois and McLean County, the proclamation will need to be approved at the federal level, McLean County Emergency Management Agency Director Cathy Beck said.
“Right now it doesn't mean anything other than it's going up the channels. It needs to go to federal and be approved at federal before there's really any chance of assistance,” Beck said.
If approved, McLean County will then need to prove a significant amount of damage to the area.
“Because it's a state disaster, it's over $24 million of damages that's uninsured or underinsured damages,” Beck said. “Within the county we'd have to show close to $1 million of damage for it to become a federal disaster if they approve it.”
There is no approximation or figures for the value of damage in McLean County yet. There are records that were collected after the storms but they have not been pulled together, Beck said.
This is not the first time the area will apply for aid following April’s severe weather. In May, the Small Business Administration [SBA] determined that the area did not qualify for federal aid because there was not a high enough damage based on the value of homes.
Much like the previous attempt for aid, Beck said McLean County will apply for federal aid if the proclamation is approved at the federal level.
“There is no state aid; it would be federal aid. It just has been bumped up past SBA because more counties must have had damage,” Beck said.
Of the 11 counties included in the proclamation, seven of them are listed as encountering severe weather in June. The storms range from March 10 to June 17 across all of the counties listed.
If the storms are approved as a federal disaster in Illinois, it would be the first disaster since severe storms hit the area in July 2024.
“It would be great if… it would be proclaimed a federal disaster for Illinois,” Beck said. “There haven't been many of those approved in recent years.”
The proclamation also opens up the opportunity for rural communities to apply for funding, per the release, through the state's Community Development Block Grant Disaster Response program.
