Authorities in Indiana have compiled nearly 300 reports of damage from last month’s tornado-packed storms in the Lafayette area as they work to boost Indiana’s appeal for federal disaster aid.
Tippecanoe County emergency management agency staffers worked this week with state and federal representatives to check on areas with reported damage from the Nov. 17 storms that slammed the state with about two dozen tornadoes.
The Tippecanoe County review found six homes destroyed, 17 with major damage and about 60 residences with less damage, Martin Webb, deputy director of the county Emergency Management Agency told the Journal & Courier.
Other damage found included 25 agricultural buildings destroyed, and two schools among five public buildings damaged.
The Tippecanoe County damage reports will be added with those from Howard, Fountain, Boone, Daviess and Grant counties for a federal disaster aid request, said John Erickson, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency last week turned down the state’s assistance request for Howard County, where state officials say about 1,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in the Kokomo area during the Nov. 17 storm.
“We believed Howard County gave us our strongest position to qualify for a disaster declaration,” Erickson said. “Now we are working to make a better case.”
Webb encouraged residents who haven’t reported damage to file a claim online with the county or state emergency management agencies.
“We’ve had over 85 percent of the county affected by the storm,” Webb said. “The biggest thing is this storm hit in relatively unpopulated areas. Otherwise we might have seen some of the same types of damage Kokomo had, where entire subdivisions were wiped out.”
Topics Windstorm
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