President Obama declares disaster in eight counties in Southwest MN

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that federal disaster aid has been made available to the State of Minnesota to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, flooding, landslides, and mudslides during the period of June 11 to July 11, 2014.

The President's action makes federal funding available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by severe storms, straight-line winds, flooding, landslides, and mudslides in Chippewa, Freeborn, Jackson, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Renville, and Rock counties.

Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.

Warren J. Riley has been named as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area. Riley said additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.

Follow FEMA online at http://www.fema.gov/blog, http://www.twitter.com/fema, http://www.facebook.com/fema, and http://www.youtube.com/fema. Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate's activities at http://www.twitter.com/craigatfema.

The social media links provided are for reference only. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.

FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.