Over a month since the derecho storm Greene and Guthrie counties are among seven as well as the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa that now have access to the federal Public Assistance program as of Friday.

Dallas and 15 other counties were made eligible for the program on August 17th in a Presidential Disaster Declaration issued by President Donald Trump. This program provides assistance for public entities and select nonprofit organizations. Governor Kim Reynolds originally requested that 27 counties be declared for the Individual Assistance program, which provides disaster-affected homeowners, renters and businesses with programs and services to maximize recovery. Eleven counties have been approved for that program, and Reynolds explains to Raccoon Valley Radio how the other 16 counties were determined not to have sufficient damage by FEMA, “The additional counties met the criteria, I think there was an additional 10 last week, and then we had probably six or seven that through the assessment process realized that they didn’t qualify and they themselves removed the names from the list and then the few that were left they are still working with them to see if they do qualify or not. So it’s just a matter of them getting the information submitted, evaluating it, make sure that the criteria meets what the expectation is, and if they do we send it in and then it’s added to the list.”

On Thursday, Reynolds extended the disaster proclamation for counties impacted by the August 10th derecho, which allows state resources to be utilized to respond to and recover from the effects of the severe weather, and it temporarily suspends regulatory provisions pertaining to weight limits and hours of service for disaster repair crews and drivers delivering goods and services and the movement of loads responding to the storm aftermath.