DENVER — FEMA announced today that federal disaster aid totaling $3,965,356.40 has been made available to Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative and $1,240,902.86 has been made available to Slope Electric Cooperative.  The funds are being made available as part of the federal disaster declaration made by President Obama to assist North Dakota in dealing with the early October blizzard.

The funds are being provided for repairs Mor-Gran-Sou took to restore power lines damaged by the storm.  The storm impacted more than 50 miles of line in Grant County and four miles in Sioux County.  In addition hundreds of poles needed to be replaced.  Similar damage occurred in Adams and Hettinger counties with Slope Electric needing to replace hundreds of poles and miles of line. The repairs were needed to restore power to customers in the Mor-Gran-Sou and Slope Electric service areas.

Additional funding has been provided to jurisdictions in Grant, Adams and Morton counties.  This aid was provided to communities to pay for debris removal, road repairs and restoration of public facilities like schools.  The total federal share provided to all applicants statewide for the October storm is $6.2 million.  A total of 33 projects were funded under the disaster declaration.

FEMA’s Public Assistance Program provides funding to local government jurisdictions and eligible private non-profits for the repair, replacement, or restoration of disaster-damaged infrastructure as well as costs incurred for disaster cleanup or emergency actions taken to protect lives or property. The federal share of recovery costs is 75 percent. The remaining share is the responsibility of the state and local government or non-profit organization.

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.