Illinois put $27.6 million of storm damage on the table, and Washington said no. The state’s own paperwork shows that figure cleared the federal bar of $24.9 million, which makes the refusal harder for officials in Springfield to swallow.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office announced on a Thursday afternoon in early October that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had turned down its request for aid after severe storms, flooding and a derecho that moved through Illinois in July and August, The Center Square reported. FEMA has not explained itself. A spokesperson told Capitol News Illinois only that the agency follows the Stafford Act and weighs each request, including state and local capacity, to decide whether federal help is warranted.
What the numbers show
The request covered eight counties: Champaign, Cook, Ford, Fulton, McLean, Tazewell, Vermilion and Will. According to state documents reviewed by Capitol News Illinois, damage averaged $5.95 per resident in the affected counties, against the $1.94 FEMA requires for Illinois to qualify. The state counted 4,519 damaged homes, 46 of them destroyed, with Cook County holding most of the destroyed homes and half the damaged ones. Damage to homes alone added up to $19.5 million. In Cook County, 48% of residents suffered uninsured losses.
The picture is not one-sided. Only four of the eight counties, Fulton, McLean, Vermilion and Will, met their own local thresholds. Cook reached just 63% of the $18.6 million needed for public assistance, though the state argued an in-person FEMA inspection would lift it over the line. FEMA assessed public damage virtually. Federal rules also let a state add smaller county totals together.
The state also pointed next door. Indiana got a major disaster declaration on August 25 for the same weather system, the application noted.
What the state has spent
Illinois has already put up $2.2 million for personnel, expertise and equipment, $100,000 to open the State Emergency Operations Center, and $1.5 million in community development block grant funds. Pritzker says that cannot go on forever. “The state government doesn’t have the resources to fill in all the holes that the federal government has now made for states across the country,” he said. Some help has come from other federal sources such as Small Business Administration loans.
Ted Berger, who directs the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security, called the decision “not the update we hoped to share.” The state set a record for tornadoes this year, with at least 212 touching down, according to the National Weather Service. In February, FEMA also turned down an earlier Illinois request and appeal.
Politics hangs over it. Sen. Dick Durbin accused President Donald Trump of punishing states that did not back him. Capitol News Illinois cited a Politico analysis finding that Democrat-led states saw 23% of disaster requests granted in his second term, against 89% for Republican states. Pritzker’s office says it will appeal, citing property and infrastructure damage, power outages and flooding. No date for a decision has been given.
Sources
- Illinois again denied FEMA aid for summer storms
- Documents show state's disaster request met FEMA's threshold | Capitol News Illinois
